NISSAN LEAF Hatchback 2010 on

I have owned this car from new having ordered it in early 2011, eventually received in July 2011. It has now covered almost 24,000 miles and the experience has been great. Sure, you require to change your driving technique, but in some respects thatt is probably not a bad thing. The car is in daily use for commuting which is a round trip of approximately 50 miles, mixed motorway and single carriageway and town driving. I have used it for other aspects of my work and not suffered range anxiety except once owing to a very strong headwind. It has a good acceleration and for fun it will accelerate all the way to illegal speeds.It is comfortable to drive and the ability to control the heater remotely by iPhone is a huge benefit as well as being able to update the info from the car's computer. There is a number of gismos to give information on charging, battery discharge, distance and effect of the climate control on distance etc.. Hugely informative and fun dash. It carries five adults with no appreciative impact on distance. Charging is brisk with the home charging unit which I had installed from a third party, taking 6 hours from low mileage to full. The mileage shown on the distance meter first thing is never accurate as this changes throughout your drive, use the cruise control and adapt your driving technique and mileage can be increased. I have had the meter showing 121 on one occasion. It has saved me a fortune in diesel and our teenager has recenly passed her test in it. The first EV at the local test centre. She found it incredibly easy to drive compared with a manual car. All in all I have been very impressed with it.Servicing costs have been minimal, 1 trip to garage at 18k cost about £130. I have minor irritations, in that the early models do not have heated mirrors, but I know that those built for the Canadian market can have heated seats, mirrors and steering wheel, so should be on the options list. Would I buy another, most definately and I wish the Scottsh Government would get into gear and install a number of public charging points. In Northern England there are loads, but it is still a slightly risky long distance venture.

Have now done 23,000 miles with the Leaf,absolutly love it,no problems apart from a creaky dashboard.Have owned this car for just over 18months,would not even contemplate a replacement.This is a genuine review,not like the one or two "fake" efforts to slay this excellent car.Once you have had one for as long as I have had one,you just plan your journey and the dreaded range anxiety goes away. It looks after itself overnight,on economy 7 electric.I have calculated that it costs me at the most £63.00 per quarter on my bill.I use it every day, sometimes twice a day.I have managed to fit in two journeys of 60 miles no problem.The average charge to full has been 8 hours.Thats after doing 62.5 miles the day before.I just plug it in and forget it.Will report further when I have reached 50,000 miles.

I've driven this car for a few months now and driven about 5000 miles in it. I have to say that I have grown to very impressed with it despite my initial misgivings. The driving of the car is very very relaxed with no noise and no gear changes. The quality of the build is very good and everything feels well screwed together. You still have to be careful with your range, but I have managed to get 95 miles out of it on a single charge. However, you have to drive in eco mode and also drive with a very light right foot to get this, but it is possible. A drive on the motorway at 70 mph will give you about 60 miles. I have had a home charger installed so the charge time has now been reduced to about 5-6 hours for a full charge as well. I really enjoy driving it within a range of about 50 miles where you have no worries at all about the range, and I look forward to driving it. The carwings system is great where I can control the car from my smartphone and can start charging it and turn the climate control on and off remotely. So I have changed my mind about the car, but I still don't like Nissan. I will now keep it until something with a similar range is produced by the other manufacturers.

I have actually bought this car so this is a real review. The car is good to drive and comfortable. It's very difficult to gauge the range of the car. You might start off your journey with 95 miles showing, but if you drive at motorway speeds, your range will be less than half that . It's fine for urban driving but range anxiety has been a real issue for me. I actually ran out of charge on the day I drove the car home from the dealer. It cost me £300 to have the car recovered on a flat bed transporter and taken to my home address. The dealer has been woeful. I was told the car would be fully charged on the day I picked up the car. Not the case, I didn't even reach the first charge point that I had planned on my way home. The dealer had not arranged for the carwings system to be working despite my request for it to be set up - so couldn't find any alternative charge points. Nissan did not assist recovery despite them saying it is within their discretion in the 2nd year - no discretion exercised for me. I really regret buying this car mostly because it is a Nissan. It is my first and last Nissan. I will probably keep it for 6 months to get some use from it, but I will trade it for something like the Renault ZE range, Amperage or plug-in Prius. I have never had any problems with those makes when I had my previous cars. So although I really wanted to like this car, Nissan have made it a miserable experience for me.

Have had the car for 10 months,have done 11000,miles,I average 350 miles per week,in my job as a music teacher.It has exceeded my expectations.Only problem I had so far was a noisy pedal,sorted with WD40!.Only gripes so far are, a total of three items,1, Main beam very poor,2 Main beam warning light much too small,3 Thick windscreen pillars,bad blind spot.As regards range, which I know you will be all dying to know!Well having lived with the car through the latter part of spring,to the beginning of winter, all I can say the ambient temperature affects range by appx,15%.If the overnight temperature drops below 4 degrees,in about an average drive of 63 miles,I lose about 8 miles.In the summer,I can comfortably do 69 miles.Perfomance is acceptable,in "D" mode especially.I use "eco" 90% of the time, using D for overtaking, which is like "kickdown" on an old automatic.

Brillantly easy,and relaxing to drive.Roadholding,very flat,can be a little on the soft side into corners.The best bit , is unfortunatly, on motorways,I say unfortunate, because on long uphill gradients it loses range significantly.I have grown use to this of course, and drive according to the situation.I n one way this car makes you a much more relaxed/refined driver.

I am 64 at present, so if it can last another 10,years,thats perfectly alright with me.The only worry, is will it last that long???.Just add to say I do have a Fiat Panda 100,so not totally electric!

Total waist of time and money.Battery keeps going flat after a few hours and takes almost 24 hours to recharge.No soul in car,emotionless.Guarantee you will sell car within weeks if you ever bought one as I have now done.

Hi I have a white nissan leaf and it really is bad. You know everything you want from a car. This doesn't have it. It has an alright equipment list but really would you pay the price. Warning always test drive cars even if new before you buy them. I'm getting shot of mine soon for a better diesel.

I should say I have just been for my test drive in a Leaf and immediately signed up to order one so I pormise I will add further updates once I have been living with it for a while.

For me the decision is not anything to do with environmental concerns, it is purely economical. I currently have a Car Payment of £250 per month and with a 50 mile round trip commute have a choice of £200 a monthly train fare or £200 per month fuel.

So I can lease a Leaf for £450 per month and essentially have a brand new top specced car for the same amount I am paying right now. AND the £200 per month I would have been spending on petrol is being paid into something that will still have a value after 3 years unlike petrol.

My main concern then was how the car was to drive, space and whether the advertised range was realistic. We also wanted to clarify ongoing doubts about battery life (there is so much clearly false negative stuff about this its hard to know whats true).

I am realistic about range as long as it did about 70 miles with "normal" driving I'm happy. I have no doubt it will achieve that easily and would expect nearer 90. We intend to keep a second car for longer journeys but for al lthe days we travel more than 100 miles in a day we would be equally happy to hire.

If your daily commute is more than 60 miles or if you cant afford to run a second car I would suggest this might not be the car for you.

The space is fantastic in all seats and still enough room in the boot for pram or a dog or a fair bit of luggage. The car is incredibly well specced with a superb sat nav / media system with loads of well thought out extras. It's like driving an ipod! .

As for battery life , the car has a 100,000 mile warranty on the battery. That is more than the engine on most cars. I am satisfied with the official position from Nissan that it is more likely to need individual modules replaced rather than the hwole pack and this wil cost hundreds rather than thousands.

Unlike some other reviews I will try to be as honest as I can with future reviews once I have lived with it for a while but it has been a long time since I have been this excited about a car.

I have had the car for 6 months and I am completely satisfied with the performance, practicality and running costs of the car. It is a great second car for school runs, shopping visits and costs about £2 for 90 to 100 miles of motoring.

Future of motoring? Yeah flipping right. The future, for now, is most certainly not electric cars. What you have to do is wait for hydrogen cars. And here's why.

The battery, for me, lasted, and I'm not joking, 173 minutes. That's it. And it required TWELVE AND A HALF HOURS to re-charge. To put it another way, a journey from London to Edinburgh would take about 2 days. Whereas in a proper car, it would take about 6-7 hours. This 'Future of Motoring' twaddle isn't proving to be right.

Also, it has no feel when you drive it. It is the most dull pile of rubbish I have ever experienced. It has been built to just be a machine, not a car. Cars are often a pleasure to drive and they make travel much easier and quicker, while also carrying passengers in comfort and having other necessary functions, such as extra space etc. This only covers the passenger-carrying part. That's all. Apart from that it's a lump of metal that lacks soul, feel, pleasure or function if you take into account the fact that you can only drive down your road before running out of juice and having to wait half a day before you can run out again.

And the cost? Even with the £5,000 off from the government, it costs nearly £30k brand new. That's got to be the worst value I've ever heard of for a car.

Any pros at all? It carried 5 people, is tax-exempt and doesn't kill the planet. But if it really is the future of motoring, killing the planet is probably a better option.