The Nissan Leaf started turning fall colors a few years ago, and it's looking pretty brown for 2025. There are two versions available: the base Leaf that can go an estimated 149 miles on a full charge and the upgraded SV Plus version that can go just 212 miles. Those EPA range estimates are much shorter than those of other electric vehicles, some of which can exceed 300 miles. The Leaf is also stuck with a near-obsolete charge port that can make public fast charging a headache. The Leaf still clings onto its tree (and this metaphor) with a low price, but that's about it.
Edmunds spotlight: Blame Chad Emo
The name sounds like a preppy dude in a whiny 2000s rock band, but the Leaf's CHAdeMO charge port should be reason for plenty of angst in its own right. Although common originally, CHAdeMO has gone the way of Beta video tapes. Two other EV fast-charging plug types — CCS and the Tesla-style NACS — have supplanted it. Buying a plug adapter can help mitigate this problem. But there's still no getting around the Leaf's short range and slow charging times.
Competitors to consider
The new Chevrolet Equinox EV is worth checking out. It's roomier and more modern than the Leaf and can go more than 300 miles on a charge. Other low-priced alternatives we recommend include the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro EV.
What's it like to live with?
Edmunds lived with a Nissan Leaf for 9,500 miles during this second-generation's first year on the market. Back then, the only battery/motor combo available was what you'll find in today's base Leaf S, so this Leaf's One-Year Road Test is still a great resource for that version. In short, we found that while it would never be the car of choice for a long drive, its perky acceleration and smart one-pedal driving made it a great choice for commute duty. Also, unlike some other EVs we tested in that era, it was as reliable as an anvil.
Which LEAF trim does Edmunds recommend?
In the past, we have recommended stepping up to SV Plus as its greater range and added creature comforts make it a stronger overall vehicle. Now, with better alternatives to the SV Plus, the base Leaf S seems like the strongest of the lot. Why? Because there's nothing else like it. If you want a simple new EV for a low price and don't need road-trip-friendly range, it's the way to go.
Helpful trims summary and side-by-side comparison chart
Nissan LEAF models
The 2025 Nissan Leaf is a compact electric hatchback available in two versions: the S and SV Plus. Each has its own battery pack, range and power output. The S has a 40-kWh battery pack (that's tiny by today's standards) that's good for an EPA-estimated 149 miles of range, plus a motor output of 147 horsepower. The Leaf SV Plus has a 62-kWh pack (still quite small) that provides 212 miles, plus a 214-hp motor.
Leaf S Feature content is minimal and in keeping with a base compact hatchback. It includes:
16-inch steel wheels with plastic covers
Automatic headlights
Proximity entry and push-button start
Automatic climate control
Manual height-adjustable driver's seat
8-inch touchscreen infotainment system
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity
Four-speaker sound system
Every Leaf also comes standard with the following driver assist features:
Automatic emergency braking (warns if a front impact is imminent and applies the brakes if you don't respond in time)
Rear automatic braking (applies the brakes automatically to avoid an imminent collision with an object behind the vehicle)
Lane keeping assistance (steers the Leaf back into its lane if it begins to drift over the lane marker)
Blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic warning (alerts you if a vehicle is in your blind spot during a lane change or while in reverse)
Blind-spot intervention (automatically steers the car back into its lane if you try to change lanes while a car is in the vehicle's blind spot)
Leaf SV Plus Besides its bigger battery and more powerful motor, the SV Plus adds a wealth of extra features. These include:
17-inch alloy wheels
LED headlights
Heat pump heater system (heats the cabin more efficiently than normal heater)
Power-adjustable driver's seat
Heated front seats
Six-speaker sound system
Navigation
Remote vehicle services and controls
Additional driver assist features include:
Surround-view parking camera system (gives you a top-down view of the vehicle and its surroundings in tight parking situations)
Adaptive cruise control (adjusts speed to maintain a constant distance between the Leaf and the car in front)
Driver attention warning (issues an alert if sensors determine you are becoming fatigued)
By combining Nissan incentives and state rebates, I was able to lease this car for peanut money. A total no brainer. It has much greater range than it is rated for. At 85% charge my range is 165 miles. I see no reason to get the “plus” model given the extra cost. The base model has so much tech where it counts (car play and safety stuff) and low tech where you don’t care (manual … parking brake and seats). The ride is excellent for a small car. Seats are much more comfortable compared to chevy bolt. Just know the tires wear out uniformly at 13,000 miles.
Awesome EV...
5 out of 5 stars
Todd Z, 05/02/2022
2022 Nissan LEAF SV PLUS 4dr Hatchback (electric DD)
We purchased a SL Plus a few months ago. Its a great car. We charge it about once a week - the 225 range is perfect for our use pattern. The level 2 charger (included) was easy to install at our garage after we upgraded the outlets. Inside its very comfortable with great visibility. The Media and dash are simple to use and more like a traditional auto. The EV related menus are … simple as well. Back seat is a back seat - good enough for ad hoc travelers and our pups - not limo space though. Back seats DO FOLD DOWN - so some of the reviews are incorrect here. Rear storage is as expected for a Compact Car+. Overall we'd buy it again - Nissan is inexpensive and truly proven.
Great little EV.
5 out of 5 stars
Taylor, 07/18/2021
2021 Nissan LEAF S PLUS 4dr Hatchback (electric DD)
I’ve only had it for a month but so far it’s been great. With the Nissan Rebates, State and Federal rebates I ended up paying only $21k plus tax.
UPDATE: 20,000 miles and still feels like new. No creeks or rattles. Just plug it in and go.
2022 Leaf - almost great
4 out of 5 stars
Curtis, 06/27/2022
2022 Nissan LEAF SV PLUS 4dr Hatchback (electric DD)
We were on a 3-month waiting list when an SV Plus came in for someone in the wrong color; silver. Since silver was our preference, we jumped on it. To have the "privilege" of purchasing it, I had to immediately put $500 down to hold it for the next day. The dealer told me they were charging $2000 over MSRP, but our Honda Odyssey had been totaled by a tree falling on our driveway and we … needed a car...and really wanted to get an EV. We still have a Subaru Outback 2.5i for a gas car. So we are comparing the Leaf not to an expensive sports car, but rather to a 4WD station wagon, and the Honda Odyssey we owned before it got crushed. We no longer need a minivan. One note about the dealer: very nice and clear about things, and it feels like I have a new friend. They were always upfront about the charges. So while I didn't like paying over MSRP, I understand supply & demand. Not naming them here, but they got a top review from me. Qualifies for fed. $7500 tax credit.
What we've found is that we really like to drive the Leaf as much as possible. The Outback does many things better than the Leaf, has better interior design, ground clearance, traction, and can handle long trips, but for daily driving my wife, my 16-year-old son, and I all prefer the Leaf. We sort of fight over who gets to use it each day. Here's why:
It's more fun to drive and we like the economy of it. The dog* fits easily in the back. That's all.
* (65 lb. Standard Poodle - similar in size to a Golden or Lab. The rear door has a sill 9" higher than the interior floor, so your dog needs to jump over that. It's actually 1" TALLER than the 28" high Outback rear opening. The poodle has no problem with that, but some dogs might need a lift up.)
The Outback is no sports car, and compared to the Leaf it sounds like it's suffering under anything more than gentle acceleration. The Leaf feels effortless in its stronger acceleration and is smoother over the road and quieter inside. Much quieter under acceleration, but at all other times as well. We like the steering. The e-pedal has become fun to use and after a brief resistance by my wife, we all use it now. It's free to charge (level 2) at the YMCA while we're working out. Charging at home is easy and far cheaper than gas. It's been so easy to keep charged that after 3 months we still haven't put in the level 2 plug! Yeah, we don't have long commutes and we only bother topping it up every 3-5 days or so. It's never been below 45% charge. I usually stop charging between 80% and 90%. We went to the gym, did some errands, and came back home with more charge than when we left.
That being said, it could have been so much better, but for some disappointing design decisions by Nissan. The SV Plus is the middle 2022 trim level, and in 2023 I think it's the highest because they simplified the lineup. Remember, despite all the things in the list of dislikes below, we all still want to use it. That might not be true compared to any other EV though.
#1 worst idea is continuing to use the soon-to-be-abandoned CHAdeMO high speed charging port when you KNOW the CCS type is taking over. This is going to end up as a class-action lawsuit if they don't make an adapter soon. They know it's happening because their next-gen Ariya EV uses CCS... Nissan abandoned the standard they were the champion of, and now it will be like Betamax vs VCR, so all Leaf owners (even 2023) are going to be really upset because nobody is going to continue to install those chargers for highway trips.
The "Nissan Canto" is the sound it makes via external speakers at low speeds to warn pedestrians. I know Nissan spent a ton of $$ to develop it as a "branding sound" but it sounds weird like the car is a sick other-worldly whale and will break down soon. PLEASE send an update with more sound options! Copy Porsche instead of the electric Rivian Amazon delivery van. Maybe Audi...but, not really. Porsche does it best at this point.
It has a very awkward HUMP in the floor in the center of the back seats. All the other EVs tout their flat floors....oh, Nissan how could you have this car on the market for so long and still have a hump that makes the center rear seat a hellish place to sit?
The Leaf has zero front storage space. No frunk space at all. Come on, this isn't the first generation of the car!
It has front-wheel drive when EV's should all have rear wheel or all wheel drive. All that torque and the weight shifts to the rear wheels. Bad engineering choice.
Rear windows don’t go all the way down. A few inches of glass stick up. Sad.
Anyone over 6' tall has to bow down to sit in the back seats or hit their head. My 6'4" son can't ride back there comfortably at all. It's actually kind of dangerous if you hit a bump.
Rear seats don't fold flat so the expanded cargo area is very disappointing.
No spare tire or jack.
Passenger front window doesn’t have one touch up / down like the driver's window. Just a bit annoying to save a tiny bit of money.
Glossy black plastic in places you touch always looks bad. Matte faux carbon fiber on dash where you never touch looks better even if you do touch it. Why use the glossy plastic instead of the carbon fiber stuff? (if you must put hard plastic in the touch zones)
The center armrest is designed to be an insult to both driver and passenger, and the storage under it is way too small. Wost center console design I've ever seen, except the phone slot is OK...should be wider but it's decent.
Glove compartment is small, but takes up a lot of dash space because the door and edges are so thick. Why use this cheap-feeling door that is overly thick...but hollow. There's tons of space for a decent glove compartment, but they wasted it.
If the car is plugged in, you can remotely START charging (but never do, because you always want to start the moment you plug in) but you cannot remotely STOP charging, which you may want to do at 90% for example. Nor can you set a % charge stop limit in the car menu. You can set a stop timer. You have to guess, hmm, in 6 hours it should be around 85% so stop then.
The fog lights are warm white, but the other lights are cooler white. They should just match, or fog lights could be yellow, the right color for their function.
External cameras are low quality. Or maybe it's the display. The rear one is grainy in low light and has a poor image. The rear camera on my Outback looks better and brighter in dim light than what I can see with my own eyes. The Leaf needs a decent rear camera
Nissan has factory all-weather floor mats but NOT for the rear cargo area. Even the dealer didn't know this because I paid them for all 5 mats and they were shocked the cargo mat that arrived was carpet. The poodle likes to swim and carpet back there wasn't going to work. They had to get a rubber one from Weathertech.
The navigation system is so unresponsive (too much delay on the touchscreen when dragging or zooming the map) we never use it. It has only WIRED Android auto/ Apple carplay. Not using wireless in 2022 is lame. I'd rather just prop my phone up and use that, so the whole built-in system just doesn't ever get used. If it's going to be that bad, maybe they should provide a nice place to clamp a phone. I am happy that it has many of the main functions on physical buttons.
All that being said, it fulfills its main function as a fun, quiet, useful, & economical daily car.
We have a limited number of reviews for the 2025 Nissan LEAF, so we've included reviews for other years of the LEAF since its last redesign.
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1200" height="588" fill="none" preserveAspectRatio="none"%3E%3Cmask id="b" width="1200" height="588" x="0" y="0" maskUnits="userSpaceOnUse" style="mask-type:alpha"%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23a)" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3C/mask%3E%3Cg mask="url(%23b)"%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23c)" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23d)" fill-opacity=".15" d="M581.718 62.893c42.993 1.53 86.281 5.888 129.704 13.204 311.828 52.485 552.538 242.016 657.698 483.656-149.97-147.971-450.891-226.33-789.375-232.079-338.534.839-640.434 74.572-792.746 220.292 108.75-240.047 352.255-425.97 664.832-473.803a1041.548 1041.548 0 0 1 129.887-11.27Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23e)" fill-opacity=".5" d="M611.247 209.93a1458.84 1458.84 0 0 1 139.573 27.692c333.61 83.239 577.16 267.208 668.67 475.188-148.93-138.63-468.279-241.218-835.209-290.421-367.6-43.915-702.265-24.445-881.281 72.561 140.567-178.524 422.355-295.817 766.181-293.074 47.867.484 95.274 3.212 142.066 8.054Z"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23f)" d="M735.039 879.394c48.524-6.62 97.023-16.967 145.3-31.2C1227.03 746.059 1475.76 472.327 1564.28 145c-151.17 209.633-482.23 344.436-865.05 388.31C315.515 568.571-35.93 504.564-227 330.342-73.333 632.61 226.169 849.617 586.429 878.604c50.15 3.871 99.74 4.07 148.61.79Z" opacity=".3"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23g)" d="M694.222 783.712c50.956 12 103.317 20.27 156.946 24.578 385.102 31.013 738.232-146.76 952.062-439.434-231.22 151.216-613.24 158.795-1012.047 55.796C394.784 312.716 68.643 114.101-55.211-133c37.44 360.528 253.087 691.895 601.449 858.946 48.557 23.091 97.963 42.302 147.984 57.766Z" opacity=".9"/%3E%3Cpath fill="url(%23h)" fill-opacity=".5" d="M896 513c116 45.015 222 64 304 75V0H0v501c40 36.024 154 76 340 76s344-146.269 556-64Z"/%3E%3C/g%3E%3Cdefs%3E%3ClinearGradient id="a" x1="1005" x2="989.087" y1="23" y2="552.522" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23007EE5"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".333" stop-color="%231561D4"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%230A4AAB"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="c" x1="1005" x2="989.087" y1="23" y2="552.522" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23007EE5"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".334" stop-color="%231561D4"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="d" x1="675.999" x2="879.999" y1="648.999" y2="120.999" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%23fff"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%23fff" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="e" x1="656.5" x2="637.602" y1="213" y2="622.259" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop offset=".115" stop-color="%23fff" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".944" stop-color="%23017D8D"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="f" x1="398" x2="737" y1="599" y2="387" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%2300ABB5"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%2300A0B5" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="g" x1="1051.5" x2="271" y1="567" y2="575" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop stop-color="%230098C2"/%3E%3Cstop offset="1" stop-color="%23033E96" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id="h" x1="1005" x2="986.038" y1="23" y2="587.43" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"%3E%3Cstop offset=".813" stop-opacity="0"/%3E%3Cstop offset=".972"/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3C/defs%3E%3C/svg%3E)
