“It would be too easy for our engineers to do an expensive electric car. If there’s no cost constraint, no…that’s not what we need.”
That's a quote from none other than Nissan-Renault megaboss Carlos Ghosn back in the 2010s, before his highly-publicized fall from grace and when the pioneering Nissan Leaf was still in its first generation. The Leaf seldom gets credit for what it was trying to be: an affordable, mass-market electric vehicle, priced at the same level as a comparable gas car.
That is no easy task when EV battery costs remain high, and very few carmakers are even able to pull it off today. Making a great $30,000 car is never as easy as making a great $100,000 one; add in battery power, and you're looking at a lot of red ink.
Yet 15 years after its inception, the Nissan Leaf is finally ready to deliver on its original promise. This latest Leaf offers more range, better tech and fewer compromises than ever. Can it really hit critical mass this time around?
(Full Disclosure: Nissan loaned me a Leaf for a week of testing.)
I'm the third InsideEVs staffer to test the new-for-2026 Nissan Leaf. Deputy Editor Mack Hogan called it "the perfect electric reset for a brand desperately in need of a win." Staff Writer Suvrat Kothari called it surprisingly great, plus or minus a few annoying quirks. I'd agree with both assessments. I was genuinely shocked at how much I liked the Leaf—more than its humble specs might imply.
Those specs include a new 75 kilowatt-hour battery, 214 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque, an Android Automotive OS suite with Google Built-In, a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard plug, and up to 303 miles of range.
Then again: are those specs even really "humble"? That actually sounds like a pretty solid modern EV setup, if I do say so myself. And especially at the Leaf's $29,990 starting price. In today's over-inflated new car market, it can be tough to find anything worth driving at $30,000 or less, let alone something electric. And yet, here's the new Leaf, doing all that and more. It also does all this with some fun colors, like my Seabreeze Blue Pearl tester.
The biggest surprise to me was just how well the thing drives. Sure, it's front-wheel-drive, a setup I don't love for EVs because all that instant electric power can lead to some prodigious torque steer. But the Leaf handles it well. It's not going to tear your face off the way a Tesla can, but it errs almost on the side of being a hot hatchback. I never once held anyone up on the highway in it.
And then there's the size. America's EV market can feel like a depressing sea of big SUVs, hefty crossovers and oversized trucks. But the Leaf remains small. It's taller overall, but not really any bigger than my gas-powered Mazda 3 hatchback, and that's a size I love because it's easy to park and live with day-to-day.
The Leaf has been somewhat derided for its odd choice of charging ports: on one side of the vehicle, a Tesla NACS plug for fast-charging only, and on the other side, a standard J1772 plug for slower, Level 2 charging only. Sure, it's a bit goofy. But it all works just fine. You charge on one side at home, most of the time, and fast-charge on the other side. I had no complaints about this setup.
As for charging, it's nothing mind-blowing with a 150-kilowatt max speed. But this is kind of a medium-sized battery, so it'll go from 10% to 80% in an estimated 35 minutes. The old Leaf would do this in 45 minutes with a smaller, 60 kWh battery. This is progress.
Want blazing-fast charging speeds? Get a more expensive car. The Leaf is in line with the new Chevy Bolt EV, and both beat the also-affordable and supposedly still-forthcoming Kia EV3 and EV4.
It also looks and feels better inside than you'd think. Sure, there are some hard plastics and clear examples of cost-cutting, like those unsightly buttons for selecting a gear. But at least in my tester's Platinum+ trim, it's not bad at all. The two-tone upholstery is nice and the dashboard accents add a premium-ish touch.
Above all, I give credit to Nissan for going with Google Built-In, which is becoming probably the best all-around EV software system you can find these days. Native Google Maps for navigation will have you not wanting to go back to anything else, that's for sure.
And Nissan deserves props for the extensive EV-related options, like its menus for charging management and scheduling. Things like showing the time to charge to 80%, or your total max charging speeds at any given battery level, or the time to achieve the optimal battery temperature for fast-charging.
This feels like an EV made by people who have done this before—because they have. That's a rare thing. I am just now starting to get that from the Volkswagen Group or General Motors. I have yet to from Toyota, at all. Honda? It's too busy copying GM's homework to even know. The Leaf makes me wonder what would've been possible if Nissan hadn't dropped the ball on EV development, until recently, anyway.
There are some caveats here, of course. That $29,990 entry price does get you a lot of range for cheap. It also means cloth seats, no Google Built-In, and no option for a battery heater, for potentially slower DC charging.
Realistically, the trim level you want is the mid-range SV+ at $34,320. My top Platinum+ tester, loaded with all the options, came in at $41,930. I have a hard time recommending it at that price, but in the mid-$30,000 range, the Leaf is kind of a steal.
I walked away from my time in the Leaf with very few complaints and a strong desire to drive one again, and soon. And if I ever wanted to pull the trigger on one someday, it won't break the bank. That's a remarkable achievement for Nissan, and great progress toward the goal of more affordable EVs for all.
Whether it will be a hit remains to be seen, of course. There's the challenge of tariffs now, since the Leaf is made in Japan. And it goes on sale in America without the aid of tax credits that would've sweetened ˆts value proposition. Even Nissan is kind of warning that its rollout could be limited to the more EV-friendly states, making it less likely to be some high-volume Tesla Model Y challenger, potentially.
But the new Nissan Leaf deserves to be a hit. And I hope the rest of the car industry follows its example. It may be hard to make a great $30,000 EV, but this certainly proves that it can be done.
Gallery: 2026 Nissan Leaf Review
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
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