Price of Nissan Leaf e+ announced

The Nissan Leaf e+ is now part of the standard Leaf range and is available in top-spec Tekna trim only for £35,895 after the government grant. The car was originally a limited edition model with a bigger 62kWh battery called the Leaf e+ 3.Zero but Nissan confirmed at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show in March that the car would be added to the range permanently, badged 'e+', after higher-than-anticipated demand.

According to Nissan, 1,282 orders were taken for the Nissan Leaf e+ 3.Zero in just 24 hours after its unveiling at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. Nissan only planned for 5,000 cars to be available for sale in Europe initially.

The e+ offers more range and better performance than the standard 40kWh Nissan Leaf and at £35,895, it's around £8,000 more than the less powerful model.

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The 62kWh battery in the e+ offers 55% more storage capacity than the 40kWh version fitted in the standard model. This is said to boost range from 168 miles to around 239 miles from a single charge, taking the Leaf closer to the 279-mile range of the Hyundai Kona Electric.

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Despite an increase in the number of individual battery cells from 192 to 288, Nissan has managed to keep the battery pack "almost the same size", with the only difference being a 5mm increase in the Leaf's overall height with 16-inch wheels fitted.

The electric motor has been boosted to produce 214bhp, a jump in power that's claimed to make the Leaf e+ 13% quicker if you hit the accelerator at 50mph and speed up to 75mph, allowing it to "confidently pass slower-moving vehicles, exit corners faster and merge seamlessly with fast-moving traffic". Its top speed has also increased to 97mph, which is around 10% faster than the standard Leaf. The 62kWh battery is still covered by the same eight-year/100,000-mile warranty.

All Leaf models now feature a new eight-inch touchscreen with 'door-to-door' navigation launched in conjunction with a new Nissan Connect EV smartphone app. Customers are able to choose from an increased palette of paint colours, including two-tone combinations with a striking contrasting roof.

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The latest Nissan Leaf was the best-selling EV in Europe in 2018, finding more than 39,000 homes, while more than 400,000 Leafs have been sold since the original model's launch in 2010.

First deliveries of the 3.Zero e+ are set to be made in June.

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