Often, when I think an idea won’t catch on (the mobile phone, the breakfast bar), it’s just because I haven’t thought about it as hard as its inventor has; I fear this may be true of the Nissan Leaf. It struck me as inherently preposterous to design a car that has to be delivered on the back of another car, because no one can be sure it’ll make the journey on electricity alone.
While we’re here, why eschew the option of a petrol hybrid? Why not throw in some petrol so that the superbly organised can bask in their virtue, having remembered to charge it for eight (or 16) hours the night before (depending on the voltage), while the feckless can be allowed to sometimes forget?
It dawns on me (slowly, so slowly) that some people really are organised, really are virtuous, really are committed to an electric future, really do, already, have the simple smarts to install an outdoor plug on their drive. Some people have a drive!
Some people, when the manufacturer says, “Don’t use an extension cord because you’ll break it” just believe it, and don’t feel the need to prove it to themselves. These people exist; they’re not faking it to make me feel bad. And since they exist, they need a car. This is that car.
With a top speed just shy of 90mph, the Leaf doesn’t have many pretensions in the boy racer department, but its very existence encourages a different kind of driving: the kind where you’re in a race against your own electricity usage, rather than time itself. This is extremely relaxing. You never win a battle with time – you kill yourself saving seven minutes over 190 miles, which you waste in a cataleptic state when you reach your destination. The estimates of distance left on the battery are the best I’ve come across. Indeed, all the displays and twiddly bits of the cabin are intuitive, easy to read, nicely placed, leaving your mind free to focus on the weirdness of making so little noise.
The steering is perfectly responsive and the handling is reliable; again, though, the kind of driving it encourages puts the accent on different things. You don’t really want to accelerate like a maniac or hare around a corner. You’re no longer that sort of person.
If I have one criticism, it’s that the exterior hasn’t much charm. Not enough effort has been taken to distinguish it from the rest of the Nissan family; it could stand to look a little kookier. But it couldn’t be greener, and the future salutes it.
Nissan Leaf 30kWh Tekna: in numbers
Price £27,230
Top speed 89mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 11.5 seconds
Range 249km per charge
CO2 emissions 0g/km
Eco rating 10/10
Cool rating 6/10
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