https://youtu.be/YkZeGpzcuzw?si=CVBwS6RsQvFc1WgS
They discuss the current Leaf. Nissan had a small budget to develop this and wanted it priced to a cheaper price point, with this comes come a bunch of shortcomings.
Good idea but wrong company. Nissan does not have budget to R&D this properly, hence all the compromises taken.
I hope to keep seeing both Mark and Jack on here, you guys are honestly the fucking best.
Esp because some of the Mach E and EV6 GT reddit user replies were certainly… Interesting. Good to see you back here so soon haha.
It’s the usual for Reddit. If you insult sacred cows the pitchforks come out and something you probably already spent way too much time working on now requires even more time investment to defend. Refusing to respond just means their version of events wins by default.
Esp because some of the Mach E and EV6 GT reddit user replies were certainly… Interesting.
Lmao this sub brought out the pitchforks and torches because Mark said negative things about a half-baked $50k EV plagued with recalls.
Think it was moreso about their across the board dislike of EVs. Pretty clear what cars they like and which they will be biased against.
They gave positive reviews to Ioniq, iX, i4, taycan, lucid and a few others. The comments in that video were directed towards the Mach-E and how forcing the development of EVs and rushing them to market creates disposable commodities. People freaked out and claimed they’re anti EV
What were they thinking with those horrible black wheels?
I know a couple folks who roll with a Leaf and that does seem to sum it up pretty well.
What feels missing from the other EV videos is to look at the other vehicles in comparison. The Mach E, in particular, seems like an overreaction to the Leaf’s (or maybe the Focus Electric?) issues. The big takeaway I got off the Mach E video was not that it was bad, but that the price on it was bad.
Ford used 10% of the battery capacity as low/high buffer, while competitors use less than half that. That’s driving up the cost of the vehicle a few thousand right there. Dig around and find a few more of those mistakes (was a frunk even necessary or just added expense emphasize no-gas-engine?) and you’d have a car with pretty much all the good parts of the Mach E, but with a lot more attractive price on it.
I worked for a Nissan dealer for a bit, in an EV friendly area that had strong rebates available.
We had decent traction in selling clean pre-owned Leafs, and new units as well if rebates were available.
We had waiting lists in 18/19 for Leaf+ models with the 62 KW/H battery. Nissan was very poor in fulfilling units to dealers while the Leaf was a commodity.
The day the standard range Model 3 hit ground and qualified for rebates, it was over for the Leaf. Nissans unwillingness to do subvented rates or any promo wasn’t helping either. Making them effective as much as a Model 3 on a payment level.
While down on range vs a 62 KW/h Leaf, for most the difference in wow factor & offering a thermally-managed battery was more than enough to cancel their Leaf order anyways.
It’s as typical Nissan as it gets, a good innovative product muddied by lack of updates & refinement.
MY 2025 will be 15-years of production for the Leaf, there is still not even an option for thermal-management.
Nissan reminds me of Suzuki and Mitsubishi where they were pretty strong brands of car companies that eventually for one reason or another decided to stop and became what they are today, with Nissan only able to not become as irreverent thanks to selling a great mass-use car with the Altima and keeping the Z around in some shape or form.
Outside of the US Suzuki is fine, they never had a big market presence there anyway. The Swift, Jimmy and Ignis are all good cars
Clearly Nissan does not have enough engineering budget and is spread too thin. They could have added thermal management to this car with minimal effort and with the development costs depreciated after 10 years price could stay low. Its an interesting lesson on industry choices.
IIRC some versions of the e-NV200 van did have some form of battery cooling. Not sure how effective it was.
When I was in the market for a cheap second hand EV the choices were basically an early 40kWh Leaf or the original 28kWh Ioniq. I went with the Ioniq and am glad I did - sure it’s a rattly little penalty box on wheels but it hasn’t suffered from any noticeable battery degradation, can charge relatively fast and handles 100kmh highway speeds without a dramatic drop in range.
Its an interesting lesson on industry choices.
Hey, that’s Nissan’s slogan!
People want cheap EV. No shit, who would have thought.
I didn’t know they still build that shit box. Why!?!?
Nissan sold 4,736 leafs this year so far…
Tesla sold 173,501 Tesla Model 3’s…
Really just shows you how dominant Tesla is as a brand… the Model 3 starts $12k higher than the Leaf, and has multiple times more sales numbers.
The US consumer doesn’t want cheap EV’s…
In Canada, the Nissan Leaf SV Plus with the larger battery starts at $50k. The Tesla Model 3 RWD (base model) with 100km more range starts at $54k. As much as I hate Elon and Tesla, I’m buying the Telsa Model 3.
They want cheap EVs that aren’t turds like the Leaf.
The 2018+ Leaf is a good car. If it had active thermal management it would be a great car. If Nissan kept iterating as time went by they could be selling loads of them and benefiting from economies of scale.
Honestly, the biggest issue with a brand new Leaf right now is that used EVs exist. A lot of the top names are around $30k used now.
You can find Model 3s in good shape for under $25k which is the cutoff for tax rebates on used EVs. That’s $4k back plus whatever your state incentives are, mine are an additional $4k so that’s $17k for a Model 3 that’s just a few years old.