Nissan Leaf

Running costs for a Nissan Leaf

The Leaf is more expensive than many of its petrol or diesel rivals. However, being an electric car, the costs of charging it will be far less than filling up at the fuel station. Drive it in as economical a manner as you can – helped by some of the in-car graphics that show how much energy you’re using – and you should be able to get 160-170 miles out of it, or up to 239 miles in the E+. Using a public fast charger, you should be able to get to 80% of a full charge in around 40 minutes, and an overnight charge at home – using the 7kW wall box supplied free with the car – will take around eight hours. E+ models can accept 100kW rapid charges, while the standard car only works up to 50kW. You’ll also benefit from exemption from Vehicle Excise Duty, free parking in many places, and exemption from the London Congestion Charge. The top-of-the-range E+ models look quite pricey, and Tesla’s new, very impressive Model 3 isn’t a huge amount more, which means we’d recommend you stick to the more affordable Leaf models. These Leafs tend to be slightly cheaper than rivals like the Hyundai Kona Electric and Ioniq Electric, and as a result, we reckon they’re the Leafs to go for.