Nissan Reveals Plan to Replace Worn Out Batteries for its Leaf EV

The battery pack in the Nissan Leaf failed to impress in the hottest of climates, like the US states of Arizona and Texas, where owners reported significant capacity losses. Truth is, though, the batteries are going to eventually fade out anyway - it’s what batteries do, and while the process can be slowed down (by keeping them at their ideal temperature), it cannot be stopped.

Nissan is fully aware of this, and has announced a program to swap out used batteries for new ones, specifically for the brand’s US customers. Set to commence in the first half of 2014, it will come to compliment the warranty already in place for the power storage unit (five years or 60,000 miles for capacity loss and eight years and 100,000 miles for defects).

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Nissan Sells 10,000th Leaf Electric Hatch in Europe

Nissan announced the delivery of its 10,000th Leaf in Europe this week to a French customer. The owner is a nurse who will be driving the Nissan Leaf on visits to elderly patients and using it with her family at the weekends. The car was sold by Nissan’s Mantes-la-Jolie dealership near Paris. Read more »

Nissan Leaf Achieves Stateside Sales Figure of 25,000

While electric car sales for Nissan (and Renault) have not been going according to the original plan, not even by a long shot so far, the Japanese automaker’s most popular offering in the sector, the Leaf, has just crossed the 25,000 sales milestone for the US market. Read more »

SimCity Game Now Features Virtual Nissan Leaf Charging Stations

If you’re into economic simulations or city building games, you will surely have heard about SimCity. Made by one of the world’s largest gaming corporations, Electronic Arts, it allows the player to create his or her own detailed themed city, now complete with Nissan-branded charging stations. Read more »

Tesla Model S Surpasses GM's Volt and Nissan Leaf in EV Sales Race

You may be surprised to learn that Tesla and its new Model S battery-powered sports sedan is the sales leader in the North American rechargeable car segment this year.

Company spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks told the Detroit News that Tesla expects to report at least 4,750 deliveries of the Model S in the States and Canada when it releases its first-quarter (January through April) on May 8, which compares to 4,421 Chevrolet Volt and 3,695 Nissan Leaf deliveries, according to their respective carmakers.

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Nissan Adds Leaf to Fleet of EV New York Taxis [w/Video]

Nissan has just started a pilot program in New York City, and will be testing out six Leaf EVs that are to assume the role of taxis for the next year. It is a small-scale action designed to give the Leaf a shot to prove itself. However, to taxi drivers in London, Amsterdam and Sao Paulo, it has been a trusted companion for over a year.

In fact, the Dutch EV taxi service racked up more than 155,000 miles (250,000 km) in its first six months of operation.

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Norwegians Embrace Nissan Leaf EV, the Country's 13th Best Selling Car in 2012

Norway really seems to have taken a liking to the all-electric Nissan Leaf, and reports now show that since the car went on sale in the country, in October of 2011, more than 3,300 have been sold. In 2012, it alone accounted for 1.7 percent of the entire Norwegian car sales figure for the year, with 2,298 units shifted.

Going even further, it was Nissan's second-best selling model, after the Qashqai crossover, which beat it by a difference of 599 vehicles, and 13th bestselling car overall in the market.

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Nissan Announces Recall for Five 2013 Models Due to Passenger Airbag Issue

Nissan will be recalling four of its own models, and one Infiniti vehicle, due to a possible problem with the passenger airbags, which may not deploy in the event of a crash. The affected models are the Sentra, Altima, Pathfinder, Leaf and the Infiniti JX35, all of which are from the 2013 model-year. Read more »

European-Built 2013 Nissan Leaf to Debut at the Geneva Motor Show [40 Photos]

The new Note won't be the only European-built Nissan model making its debut at the Geneva International Auto Show next week, as the Japanese carmaker will also display the updated Leaf. Read more »

Nissan Lowers Price of 2013 Leaf EV by €3,000 in Europe

Less than 10 days after it dropped the price of the U.S.-made Leaf by more than US$6,000, Nissan announced that it is making its all-electric five-door compact hatchback more affordable in Europe, too, reducing its price by €3,000 (US$4,000).

As of today, the Leaf starts from €25,990 (US$34,644) in France and £23,490 (€28,490, US$37,979) in the United Kingdom.

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Nissan Drops Price of U.S.-Made Leaf by More than $6,000 to as Low as $18,800 with Tax Credits

At the Detroit Auto Show, Nissan revealed the 2013 model year Leaf, which aside from a host of upgrades, will be built from now on in the U.S. at the brand's manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.

As a result of the shift in production from Japan to the United States and the addition of a new base S model, Nissan has been able to trim the entry price by more than $6,000 (about 18 percent), to $28,800, or as low as $18,800 after a $7,500 federal tax credit and state rebate of $2,500.

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Nissan Presents Updated 2013 Leaf, which is Now Made in the U.S.A. as Well

Today, Nissan revealed the U.S. market version of the 2013 Leaf in advance of its debut at next week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The 2013 Leaf that will be sold in the States features a similar host of technical and equipment improvements as the Japanese domestic market (JDM) model presented in November last year, with one important exception.

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Nissan Extends 2011-2012 Leaf's Battery Warranty to Address Capacity Loss Issues

After some Leaf owners located in hot-weather climates complained to Nissan about their car's lithium-ion battery losing performance , the Japanese automaker decided to take action and bolster its warranty program that will apply retroactively on all 2011 and 2012 models, as well as the new 2013 version starting from next spring. Read more »

Nissan Lays Out Plans for 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon

As one would expect, Nissan is going to display several vehicles at Japan's largest tuning event of the year, next year's Tokyo Auto Salon 2013 with NAPAC, which will be held from January 11 to 13. Read more »

Nissan Says “Look Who’s Talking” After Fiat Implied that the Leaf is a Visual Pollution

It seems that “green” vehicles are the new field of confrontation between big automotive groups. After Ford attacked Toyota’s Prius claiming it’s inferior to the Blue Oval’s C-MAX Energi, Nissan and Fiat got into a fight about their EVs' designs.

Before the launch of the all-electric 500e at last week’s LA Auto Show, head of Fiat product marketing Matt Davis told Bloomberg News: “Let’s be honest, ugliness is probably one of the worst forms of pollution. The Fiat 500e proves that you do not have to give up on good looks to deliver an electric car.”

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Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn Admits Leaf EV will Fall Way Short of its 2012 Sales Target

Last March, during the New York Auto Show, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of the Renault-Nissan alliance, told reporters that Nissan’s all-electric Leaf compact would double its 2011 sales this year.

Given that the Japanese carmaker shifted 9,679 units in 2011, the target was around 20,000 units for 2012. “We’re not worried about it”, said Ghosn. “I feel very good about this objective.”

In October, the Leaf sold 1,579 units, an increase of 86 percent compared to the same month last year. This was also its best month in 2012. Ghosn was right about feeling good, right?

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Nissan Unveils 2013 Leaf with New Electric Motor, Cheaper S Grade and Weight Savings of 80kg/176lbs

Some two years after its market launch, Nissan has presented an updated version of its Leaf EV that features a number of enhancements, the most important of which concern a new, more compact and significantly lighter electric powertrain, and the addition of a more affordable "S" grade.

The 2013 Leaf was unveiled in Japan on Tuesday, but Nissan officials recently confirmed that a similar suite of upgrades will be applied to the North American version, which will stop being imported from Japan and begin production at the brand's Smyrna factory in Tennessee this December, with sales to start in March 2013. The same should apply for the European version.

As mentioned, the highlight of the 2013 model is the revamped electric powertrain featuring new or redesigned components starting with the new electric motor, which will be used in the updated Leaf as well as the Renault-Nissan group's future hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).

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Eco-Conscious Nissan Leaf Stretch Limousine for Eight Goes Under the Hammer

As it turns out, the world's first street-legal electric limousine based on the Nissan Leaf didn't hold its job at the Embassy suites hotel in Nashville, Tennesse, for long as we found the car listed for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $50,000 (equal to €39,400 or GBP 31,500) and a 'Buy it now price' of $57,000 (€44,900 or GBP 35,900).

We first came to know of the existence of the Leaf stretch limo back in the summer from Nissan itself, which even released a video of the eight-passenger model (see below).

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Nissan to Facelift Leaf for U.S. Production, Add a Budget Version in Early 2013 to Boost Poor Sales

That the Leaf hasn't been the success Nissan hoped for, is not a secret. This year through September, the Japanese carmaker delivered only 5,212 Leaf EVs in the United States, down 27.6 percent from the first nine months of 2011 when it sold 7,199 units.

Both these numbers are a far cry from the 20,000 Leafs Nissan wanted to sell in the car's first fiscal year on the market.

However, Nissan isn't sitting with its arms crossed waiting for a miracle to happen, as the company plans to add a lower-cost variant to the range as part of a 2013 model facelift, Autonews reported today.

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To Charge or Not to Charge? Nissan Faces Class Action Lawsuit on Leaf's Battery Range

Nissan claims to be at the forefront of all-electric vehicles with the Leaf. Yet the Japanese company and its U.S. division are currently been accused in the U.S. that it has misled buyers about its EV's battery life and true driving range.

Humberto Klee and David Wallak say that Nissan advertises a range of 100 miles (160 km) or less, depending on a number of variables like the road conditions and the weather.

The plaintiffs claim is that the carmaker does not say that the Leaf can attain this range only if its battery is fully charged.

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