2020 Nissan LEAF vs 2021

What's the difference?

It’s so interesting to watch the growth of electric cars and how they are expanding into every category.

This Nissan Leaf is a five-seater hatchback. It looks pretty good from the outside and you wouldn’t guess it had an electric motor if it wasn’t for the big 'Zero Emissions' stamped on the outside. 

This is a fairly pricey hatchback though, at $49,990 it’s around $10 - $15,000 more than a petrol hatchback, and it’s $5000 more than its nearest competitor, the Hyundai Ioniq.

But it only costs around $700 a year to run. And then there’s the dreamy situation of never going to a petrol station again because you charge up at home. 

Is all that enough to warrant the high price? I did a family review where I test drove the Nissan Leaf over seven days with my family of four to find out.

Here in 2021, it finally seems like Australia is ready to adopt electric cars, with interest on the rise and many, many new models of various shapes and sizes on the horizon.

Nissan, though, has been quietly chipping away at the EV market with its Leaf, which first launched in Australia way back in 2012 and was then refreshed with a new-gen model in mid-2019.

But even the latest Leaf is beginning to look a little dated compared to the likes of the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5, so what is Nissan to do?

Introduce the new Leaf e+ of course, which features a larger battery for increased driving range, as well as a more potent electric motor for peppier performance.

But is the Nissan Leaf e+ the electric car to buy?