Nissan was one of the first automakers to kick-start the American EV market with the first-generation Leaf in 2010. A low-range but very affordable and sensible choice, the Leaf managed to find nearly 150,000 buyers, and more than 80,000 of the much improved second-gen model have been sold since 2018. But the Leaf is getting old. Its range isn’t competitive, it still uses the annoying CHAdeMO charger, and its design isn’t very appealing.
Enter the 2026 Nissan Leaf, which has undergone one of the biggest automotive glow-ups in recent memory. The third-gen Leaf can get over 300 miles of range, has an NACS port with faster charging speeds, and offers a bunch of nice new features. Maybe most importantly for the U.S. market, the new Leaf looks so much better than the old one both inside and out. It still won’t be for everyone, having adopted a beetle-like crossover-coupe shape, but it should at least appeal to a lot more people.
Bigger batteries, more range
The 2026 Leaf rides on the AmpR platform shared with the Nissan Ariya, Alpine A390, and Renault Mégane and Scenic. Most versions of the new Leaf will have a 75-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, splitting the difference between the Ariya’s two packs and a good deal larger than the outgoing Leaf’s 40-kWh and 60-kWh packs. A single motor powering the front wheels makes 214 horsepower and 261 pound-feet of torque, the same amount of horsepower as before but 11 lb-ft more. Coming after launch will be the value-oriented Leaf S trim, which will have a 52-kWh battery pack and a motor with 174 hp and 254 lb-ft.
Nissan
The lowest-end trim with the bigger battery and motor, the Leaf S+, has an estimated range of 303 miles according to Nissan, almost 100 miles more than the longest-range version of the current Leaf. The SV+ will do 288 miles while the Platinum+ should get 259 miles of range, due to bigger wheels and added weight from additional features. Regardless of which powertrain you pick the new Leaf will be able to DC fast-charge at up to 150 kW, triple that of the old model, and Nissan says it’ll take 35 minutes to go from 10% to 80%. The 7.2-kW onboard charger is a bit more powerful than before, and the Leaf will have a J1772 port on one front fender and the Tesla-style NACS port on the other. Plug & Charge and vehicle-to-load capabilities will both be standard. Nissan says charging performance in cold weather has been enhanced thanks to a standard heat pump and an optional battery heater.
Smaller and more aerodynamic
Nissan has already released a few images of the new Leaf, but this is the first time we’ve seen all three hundred and sixty degrees of it. The Leaf now has a crossover bend to it, but in more of a Kia Soul sense than a Jeep Cherokee vibe. There’s subtle body cladding around the lower body and wheel arches, but that’s about all that’s crossover-y about it. Compared to the old Leaf, the new one is actually three inches shorter in length with a half-inch-shorter wheelbase, and its height is about the same, but it’s a tad wider. I think the proportions are quite nice, with stubby overhangs and a curved roofline with katana-inspired trim like on the Z. Nissan says the new Leaf has a drag coefficient of 0.26, an improvement of 0.03 over both the Ariya and the old Leaf. It’s the first Nissan with pop-out door handles up front, while the rears are hidden in the C-pillar.
Nissan
The Leaf’s face is the wing-like corporate look we’ve seen on other new Nissans, and I think it works well. Its LED headlights and criss-crossing bumper lines give it a bit of a smiling look, and the surfacing along the body side gives it a nice stance, especially at the rear fenders. Like on the Z, the taillights are behind a translucent panel, with the lights being rounded rectangles in a “2-3” orientation — pronounced “ni-san” in Japanese. That motif is also found in the headlights, the rad wheel designs and some places in the cabin, and Nissan is spelled out on the tailgate below an integrated spoiler. The Leaf will come in some real colors too, with an optional black roof on some.
Way nicer inside
The new Leaf’s interior is also a huge upgrade from the last one and similar to that of the Ariya. Its shelf-like dashboard is tiered, with a design that nicely suits a multi-tone color scheme. The Leaf has a flat floor, so instead of a traditional center console there’s cupholders attached to the armrest, and the gear selector is a set of simple buttons on the dash below the air vents, with a drive mode selector next to them. A pair of 12.3-inch screens are standard while the two upper trims have 14.3-inch units, but no matter what you get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Just under the screen are capacitive controls for frequently used climate features, and in the center of the dash is a volume knob, skip track buttons and a camera button.
Headroom is slightly down from the old Leaf, but hip room, shoulder room and leg room are all improved, especially in the rear seat where passengers have almost 9 inches more leg room. With the rear bench up the new Leaf has 20 cubic feet of cargo space, 3.6 cubes fewer than the old car, but fold the rear seat down and that’s increased to 55.5 cubes, a whopping 25.5 cubes more. A divider that creates under-floor storage is optional.
Fancy new features
Standard on every Leaf are LED headlights and taillights, 6-way manually adjustable seats, two USB-C ports up front, keyless entry and push-button start, automatic climate control, and Nissan’s full suite of driver-assist features including the ProPilot highway assist system. An upgraded 360-degree camera system is standard too, but you have to pay up to get front parking sensors in addition to the standard rear ones. Available features include 19-inch wheels instead of the base 18s, heated front and rear seats, an 8-way power driver’s seat, 64-color ambient interior lighting, a power liftgate, an electrochromic panoramic roof, a head-up display, more USB-C chargers and a wireless phone charger, and either a 6-speaker or Bose 10-speaker sound system (with speakers in the front headrests!) to replace the base 4-speaker setup.
Nissan says the 2026 Leaf will reach dealerships this fall, but the company has yet to say how much it will cost. Hopefully it won’t stray too far from the 2025 Leaf’s $29,280 starting price. Its styling still won’t be for everyone, but the new Nissan Leaf has been improved in all the right ways to actually be competitive in today’s EV market.
Nissan
Nissan
