I think you have really answered it yourself, the Kia is a much more modern design desirable car. So while you identified that the Leaf has Chademo the Leaf e+ also charges slow. So if you are using more than it's range often on long trips take into account the long charging stops.
Obviously not sure on the mileage of car you are looking at but the higher mileage Leaf e+ cars have often been used as taxis, which also makes them less desirable.
Leafs also suffer from more battery degradation than other cars making them less desirable.
The Kia has a longer car warranty.

 

There’s a variety of reasons why the Leaf is cheaper. Probably the biggest factor is that Nissan has driven down prices by heavily discounting new ones. The Leaf is an older design. The lack of active battery cooling means the battery can be degraded over time by getting hot. It also means that the car will reduce charging speed on the second and third charge in a long journey (rapid gate) which is a PIA on a long journey. Then there’s also the Chademo charging port and slower charging speed.
These are things that put people off and outright frighten some potential owners. It also makes the Leaf potentially good value if you can live with its limitations.

 

I guess where you end up judging the value is mostly for longer journeys. The Leaf is not easy to live with on long trips. If you don’t do long trips then you can probably love life in a Leaf.
If you plan family holidays in the car, or regular trips to distant relatives etc -basically anything that involves driving 250+ miles then be prepared for longer journeys with a lot of extra time spent waiting for the car to charge and potentially also waiting for an available charge point. This is where the Kia would be much easier to live with.

 

How much are each car? Leaf is dated and only really works as secondary vehicle due to out dated Chademo en-route charging solution. But if you are buying a local runabout and price is right, it's still worth considering.

By price is right, I'm thinking £10-12k for e+.

 

You've answered it yourself. All of those things put together make it a far more attractive package.

The points you raise :

More range - so more likely to avoid expensive public chargers, less range anxiety - so people will pay more for that
Better spec - which people like, so makes it more desirable, so people will pay a bit more
Bigger boot - more useful, so people will pay a bit more
Looks nicer - aesthetics are individual, but people will pay more for what they like
Charging port - whilst Chademo isn't obsolete and numbers are still growing, its only going to become less supported as a % of public charging availability

Put it all together, and the whole package just looks a lot better.

Then add in the newer battery technology, the better warranty, and the Kia just looks far more attractive.

My wife has a 2021 e-Niro 4+, and it's seriously nice to live with

 

I think the main thing is the Leaf warranty will run out this year (unless you buy approved used then get an extra year) the Niro will be good till 2028 (as long as it was done every year / every 10k miles, make sure you can confirm that in the service book) there is a lot of value in that alone even before you get into them longer range, being CCS, bigger boot, bigger rear passenger space, larger infotainment, sunroof (based on another recent thread that may or may not be valuable to you), this is subjective but I found the Niro seats much more comfortable on a long trip than the Leafs which were second only to the MG ZS for giving me hip discomfort, this may again just be my (middle) aging bones

 

Thanks all for the rapid and comprehensive advice.

For more info, and as I can now post with links these are two examples of the sort of thing we are looking at:

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

and

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

So you can see a good 5-6K difference in price.

90% of the time it will be shorter journeys with the remainder holidays and visiting family over 250 miles away. I feel the KIA probably is the way to go for the convenience for the longer journeys. As well as all the other advantages you have all highlighted.

Thanks again!

 

Red is definitely not the most popular colour for a Leaf.

Also the Kia is from a dealer network and the Leaf is from a (likely) one man band in an area (Lenton,Nottingham) where I wouldn't be buying a car (I don't live far away). The new pictures are posted from a small industrial unit but the older ones are posted parked on the street at the end of the road where the owners house is. I might buy a cheap banger like this but not a £10k+ one.
Anyway the point is they will need less margin in the car as they will have less overheads. So can offer cheaper cars.

 

The photos for the Leaf all looks like all from same location??

That red looks nice IMO. My wife specified it's the colour she wants. So if I were upgrading for powering home heat pump, that would be on my shortlist for our local runabout.

But for your 250 miles trip away, I would only consider CCS vehicles. Plus, the price difference is worth it for reasons highlighted by everyone, including yourself, OP.

 

The photos for the Leaf all looks like all from same location??

From older car listings. Like this one. It's Grove Road where the old Grove pub was.

 

I'll put the opposite case here. The warranty is a big deal, but you can get a Nissan Good-to-Go package for around £450/year, including MoT, service and extended warranty, so 4 years of that is about £1800. Now the price difference is about £3 k. It's true the Leaf will take about 25 mins longer for 250 miles (summer, 25 mins charge in Leaf vs 0 in KIa; in winter, say 45 mins Leaf vs 20 min Kia.

Now, ask yourself how many times you'd sit in the car for 25 mins surfing your phone, to earn £3k in tax-free cash ?
This number is probably 100 or so, are you going to make the long trip that often ?

 

On an already PITA journey of 250 miles, no way I'd sit in the car an extra 25 minutes and have the stress of making sure I can get to a unit with multiple ChadeMo heads.

100 times - not for a £3k saving whilst having a relic of a car by comparison to the e-Niro.

 

A couple of months ago you could have bought one of these for £14k brand new (for about 24 hours before they were gone).

They have popped back up again - if they drop down to £14-15k again they are imo a no-brainer as a second family car.

Chademo-CCS adapters exist though not cheap, but if I was using rapids a lot I'd not take a LEAF anyway.

 

Exactly this. As a local roundabout, perfect.

I do wonder what will happen to values when the remaining CPOs who have been ChadeMo stalwarts, announce they're no longer going to continue rollout. It doesn't impact the utility of the car as a local runabout, but I still think used values will plummet.

Which is great for anyone clever enough to see their actual value.

 

I would say if 10% of your driving is longer trips the Leaf will drive you mad with rapidgate. I had one for three years, most of the time it was great but I had some really really really terrible longer journeys where the battery overheated and took over two hours to charge, like stuck in a crappy French service station area in intense midsummer heat. I had to be towed once too, because all the Chademos in/near Cirencester were broken (3 different locations) and after driving around the battery level got too low... don't ever buy a Leaf unless as a second car I'd say!

 

Are most people going to drive enough in a day where rapidgate becomes an issue on the e+?
Nobody here can manage to drive for more than 2 hours without taking a break so how far do people drive in a day. So a full charge and a single rapid to 80% is going to be something like 350 miles. With breaks and charging stop maybe 8 hours.
There is always the worry especially if you plan on keeping the car a long time that the availability of Chademo starts to dwindle. But I think for many an e+ could be their main car now and it become a good second car in years to come should it's rapid charging network becomes worse. They seem to last the test of time.

 

The LEAF e+ Tekna is an absolutely terrible car. Nobody should bother buying one, and everyone who owns one should sell theirs immediately for a very low price.

And I'm not just saying that for any reasons of cynical self-interest. Honest.

 

I have an e+ Leaf and will probably get a used eniro next if that helps?

I’ve bumped up against the rapid charge throttling but only 300+ miles into a long journey in France. No UK trip I’ve done has been a problem.

The Niro seems to have more space for rear passengers, more storage up front, a better shaped boot (esp compared to Tekna with Bose subwoofer) but otherwise pretty similar dimensions. Niro has CCS and charges usefully quicker on the chargers you’re likely to find and use.

If I could buy out the Leaf at the end of PCP for something close to what it’s worth I’d be inclined to keep it and maybe pick up a CCS adaptor. It’s a decent car if you don’t mind the shortcomings.

 

We’ve driven one or other of our Leaf e+s from Co Durham to Plymouth several times over the years. The e+ only rapidgates on its 3rd rapid of the day and we experienced this only once when forced into a third charge because of a faulty charger at Michael Wood Services. Not only are the number of Chademo units not decreasing, but newer ones are often faster than 50kWh and the e+ can take up to 70 odd at peak (not huge, but makes a difference). Finally, the e+ battery degrades much slower than non Leaf owners think, more like the rate of a ‘cooled’ EV.

But I traded mine in for a bigger battery Polestar earlier this year so it would be hypocritical to defend the Leaf unendingly. The main advantage of a bigger battery with a faster charge is that on the longer journeys, a top up is just that. With the Leaf e+ it’s a whole fill-up and takes quite a lot longer. But that’s where the price difference comes in and the Nero in question doesn’t have that much a bigger battery than the Leaf.

I loved my Leaf and couldn’t shed feelings of guilt when I sold it. 53,000 largely trouble free miles and not much degradation. Quite a few long journeys too. Mrs DuRam has hers on an extended warranty for at least two more years; loves the reliability and the high spec.

The Nero is probably the better car by most received wisdom measures but…