The Nissan Leaf is a 5-door hatchback (2010–2025) / 5-door coupe SUV (2025–present) from Nissan, built from 2010, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Under the bonnet: Nissan EM61. The total made was 577,000.
How it came about
The Nissan Leaf (Japanese: 日産・リーフ, Hepburn: Nissan Rīfu; stylized as LEAF) is a battery electric car produced by Nissan since 2010. It was offered exclusively as a 5-door hatchback until 2025, when it became a crossover SUV model. The term "LEAF" serves as a backronym to leading environmentally-friendly affordable family car. The Leaf was unveiled on 1 August 2009 as the world's first mass market electric and zero-emission vehicle.
Among other awards and recognition, it received the 2010 Green Car Vision Award, the 2011 European Car of the Year, the 2011 World Car of the Year, and the 2011–2012 Car of the Year Japan. The Leaf's range on a full charge has been steadily increased from 117 km (73 miles) to 364 km (226 miles) (EPA rated) by the use of larger battery packs and several minor improvements. As of September 2021, European sales totalled more than 208,000, and as of December 2021, over 165,000 had been sold in the U.S., and 157,000 in Japan. Global sales across both generations totalled 577,000 by February 2022. The Leaf was the world's all-time top selling plug-in electric car until it was surpassed in early 2020 by the Tesla Model 3.
The hardware
Power comes from Nissan EM61. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Nissan Altra / Nissan Hypermini; assembly was at Yokosuka. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Lexus LFA, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Lamborghini Aventador — show what else the money bought that year. Its Nissan stablemates include the Nissan N6 and the Nissan N7.
What it costs now
The money question first: $6,100–$30,900 is the typical asking range today, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $1,055–$4,209 a year. Insurance sits around $960–$2,150 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.