Has Nissan figured out affordable EVs?

Earlier this year, Nissan announced that it would be introducing the 3rd generation Leaf to customers later this year. I wrote in Ars Technica at the time that pricing is going to make or break the vehicle, and now pricing is out.

It’s better than I anticipated.

There are some weird quirks with the new Leaf, such as the dual charging port situation, but overall, the product appears to be a reasonably-equipped EV that is designed to take on the likes of the Chevrolet Equinox EV and the eventually decontented Tesla Model Y. It even has some neat quality of life features that should make ownership a little nicer.

But its price is what’s going to make or break it, and with a starting price for the S+ model of $31,485 with delivery, I think it delivers. For that price, I can forgive some of the cheap interior plastics (they weren’t bad, and what I expected, but they are there) and the weird charging port. While a 10% to 80% state of charge in a claimed 35 minutes is longer than on some cars, those other cars cost significantly more money, considering.

There’ll even be a less expensive version coming eventually, with a 52-kWh lithium-ion battery and less range. I wouldn’t be surprised if that started at around, $25,000. That won’t be the volume model, but a $25,000 new car of any powertrain is quite rare in this day and age.

What’s more impressive about how they reached this price is that the new Leaf will be built alongside the Ariya in Japan. It won’t be built in Europe. It won’t be built in Smyrna, Tennessee. It’ll be built in a country where the current administration has decided that Americans need to pay tariffs on.

While I think it’s safe to compare the new Leaf to the Equinox EV, I think more people are going to compare the new Leaf to the upcoming Chevrolet Bolt EV replacement. Spy shots indicate that GM is focusing on the EUV bodystyle, and the company has confirmed that it will not be riding on Ultium, but instead retain the same architecture as before.

Someone at GM woke up this morning thinking they were going to have a chill Tuesday, but now has to contend with a competitor that has pricing that is likely as good, or even undercuts, how much they were planning on pricing the Bolt.

With delivery, a 2023 Bolt EUV started at $28,195. That’s $3,290 less than the new Leaf with 303 miles of range. The Bolt EUV had 247 miles of range. The peak charging rate on the Bolt was 55 kW, while the Leaf should peak at 150 kW. The replacement Bolt will also have an NACS port, but we’re not sure how much will change when the car goes on sale.

The one thing we don’t know is the base S Leaf and how far it’ll go on a charge. It’ll likely be less than the Bolt, with the Bolt sitting between the S and S+ in terms of range, like an EV sandwich.

Hypothetically, the Bolt will also have an upgraded option that includes Super Cruise. All Leafs come with Pro Pilot Assist 1.0, but that’s a hands-on system. Super Cruise, even the base system that the Bolt had, is a hands-off system.

But one of these vehicles is still hypothetical, because we don’t know much about the real specifications of the upcoming Bolt replacement. We do have the specs on the Leaf, along with the price, and I like what I see.

Is Nissan losing money on every new Leaf it sells? I don’t know. Probably. But without incentives, it’s going to be one of the least-expensive new EVs you’ll be able to buy.