Two reactions to that from me:

1) That's sad, probably marks the beginning of the end of one of the most important EVs.
2) Let it die, it's done what it needed to.

Not so sure about the wisdom of continuing the 39kWh, but if there's demand then so be it. I suppose if it's positioned as a commuter car, it won't matter that it's not got CCS, and if it's likely to mostly be Type 2'd it should also help keep the battery happier for longer. I imagine this will just be a stop-gap till they electrify the Juke/Qashqai/Pulsar etc, or come out with something else to replace the LEAF.

 

Seems a bit premature as they don't have the replacement ready yet. The Ariya is a bigger and more expensive car.

Still 5 pages worth of brand new e+s on AutoTrader so may not be the whole truth.

 

I think there is a big market for 40 Kw battery cars. It is that people insist that for the twice a year journey of 300 miles they need a bigger battery and they really don’t The more people accept that the more EVs can be on the roads.

 

300 miles in a Leaf 40 is going to mean charging at least twice en route, probably three times. Some people won't mind that but, in comparison to an ICE car, it's a lot more needy.

It still makes a great second car for a lot of households, and even sole car for those with modest needs. I expect though for the typical household, like mine, that if it is going to be your only car, you'll get on better with a Leaf e+. It's not just the range -- it is more comfortable at 70 mph, and has quicker rapid charging, assuming you can find a rapid charger that will give > 50 kW through Chademo.

 

Yes, I thought there was a smaller gap to the base Ariya but this will mean LEAF is mostly in the high 20s and Ariya starts low 40s leaving a big span between. That 35k-ish market is a really competitive one though and I don't think the LEAF really appeals much there.

Keep it simple and cheap and it still works as a budget option - family sized hatch at EV supermini prices.

 

The Leaf is always well discounted. No one should pay £35k even for a top of the range e+ Tekna. There are some real bargains to be had nearly new at the moment.

 

They've already shown an EV only replacement for the Micra, based on the same platform as the upcoming Renault 5. Expected to launch in 2024 or 2025, but no firm date as yet. The news articles I'm finding still say it'll be only €25,000, which I'll believe when I see it. Speaking of seeing, it's amazing how they can take a great looking, squarish car platform, and try to add curves where they don't belong. It reminds me of the Fiat 500L.

 

Do not like, very unathletic-looking - I almost prefer the classic design more, in fact, I think I do!

 

Nearly new Leafs were very cheap early this year, I paid £21k for a two month old Tekna with 600 miles. A friend picked up one for £18k 2k miles not as nice colour though. I have seen nearly new Ascenta trim for £15k...

For a town car its great. Very well built and the facelift has improved the aesthetics. Loads of kit on the Tekna. What can you get nearly new for this sort of money?

They cant be selling them at anything like list price surely.

 

Swings and roundabouts tbh. Not a lot else at the price and capabilities, but also almost any other car is going to have CCS and thermal battery management, so they'll have long term charge network support guaranteed and much lower degradation.

Personally, despite the very good things about the leaf, these two factors automatically make it a substantially worse package than most of the equally priced competition, so I'd expect it to be priced lower than most. Great, but limited car from a different generation of EV.

 

Surely it would cost Nissan nothing to fit a CCS socket instead of the Chademo so removing half of the effective disadvantages?

 

I imagine sticking a battery fan in wouldn't cost much either in the grand scheme of things but I think they probably see it as a legacy car now so not worth dumping more R&D money into?

 

At the moment there are similar numbers of chademo and CCS chargers in the UK although that proportion is changing in favour of CCS...chademos are still being installed however so it's hardly as tho current and potential leaf owners won't have good excess to the network for many years to come.

 

I feel the numbers are misleading in a way there. Yes there are plenty at the moment, but the newer MSAs have fewer, sometimes with only a single CHAdeMO. And I think a good proportion of the existing one are very old, very poorly supported units.

There are plenty of MFG/Instavolts at the moment and there will be support for several years to come, but it'll start to dwindle at some unspecified point, and it will become a pain to route long distance trips.

That said, if it's kept as a local car/second car and mostly does type 2 charging, the public network is irrelevant.

 

Interestingly Nissan just released an all in Leaf subscription service as well: Nissan Subscription | All-inclusive Nissan Cars

 

Interestingly Nissan just released an all in Leaf subscription service as well: Nissan Subscription | All-inclusive Nissan Cars

I'm struggling to see any sense in those prices. I got my leaf in late 21, on a 3 year lease at £211 a month. Given it has a 3 year warranty and recovery service, that is a lot of extra money for tyres, servicing and insurance.....

 

Seems the OP and their source were correct & Nissan's web site no longer lists the e+/59/62 variants for sale brand new.

There are still some brand new listed on AutoTrader but I'm guessing some of those would evaporate were you to enquire.

Sad news 😢

 

Be interested to see what that does to prices in the near term.

 

Interesting news, just as I was thinking of upgrading from 40KwH to 60. 40 really isn't quite enough range for my driving requirements. Doing South London to Buxton tomorrow, will be a pain, will probably have rapid gate on the second charge.

 

About 200 miles for that journey. An e+ would manage that no trouble. You'd need a short splash 'n' dash charge at some point but no way would you see rapidgate.

 

Tbh I just have to see what deal I can get with trading in next Monday. If I have to find an extra £6k for the bigger battery, it's a question of whether it's worth spending that to save time and hassle over the long term or I would be better off just sucking it up. It's annoying on a monthly basis and on the annual Euro road trip it's very annoying indeed. The other thing is I could just wait a few years and upgrade then when the price difference becomes smaller, although I guess that's a big if.

 

Curiously, the e+ can still be ordered in places like the USA, Germany and France (according to their respective Nissan websites).

 

Probably because unlike the UK those markets still have huge subsidies for buying ev's. Also the US Leaf can get the massive tax credit because US leafs are domestically built thus eligible.

With no ev grant in the UK anymore sales dried up on the e+ because its only a few grand cheaper than the far better built/upmarket Japanese built Ariya with better performance and standard features. People on a limited budget who could afford the 62kwh leaf with the government ev grant would just settle for a pcp on a Leaf 40 instead and people with bigger budgets would skip a loaded 62kwh leaf Tekna anyway and just go for the the Ariya.

This is probably the reason why Nissan recently introduced a cheaper Ariya ENGAGE spec for £39,645(£36k after discounting) after discontinuing the bigger battery Leaf's to make it easier to upsell to potential buyers.

The biggest problem Nissan currently has in 2023 is not updating the leaf which is basically the same car as the funky pokemon looking model introduced in 2010 which is in turn based off a beefed up 2004 1st gen Nissan Tilda .. Now the brand has a huge gulf in its ev range with the ground up all new premium Ariya and the budget and aging Leaf 40 with its legacy holdovers like soon to be extinct CHAdeMO rapid charging connector..

To further add with the influx of 'product dumped' ccp owned chinese evs such as the SAIC MG4 and ZS EV flooding the lower end market with cheap subsidized low deposit 0% pcp deals further takes sales away from the Leaf.

The main point is that Nissan wasted its huge head start in the ev field and should've introduced the 3rd generation Nissan Leaf hatchback around the time the Ariya was launched, yes Nissan delaying and pausing development was partly done to reverse the destruction caused by their criminal fugitive ex ceo carlos ghosn but its a great shame the company allowed the Leaf to be neglected in the range, the Leaf is still great value for money but that isn't enough of a selling point with the huge amount of new evs being released.

 

The base model Ariya has a slower 0-60 than the Leaf e+ and top speed only one or two mph higher. The motor power is the same (160 kW), and it is a bigger, heavier, car.

But, yes, it looks like Nissan UK are trying to up-sell potential e+ buyers to the Ariya with both carrot (Ariya price cuts) and stick (no more e+).