The LEAF remains the best selling electric car in Europe for a reason.
Introduced in 2010 as the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF has led the way in making the excitement and convenience of electric driving accessible to non-luxury car buyers.
Meanwhile, LEAF owners have driven their cars more than 10 billion kilometers in total. The number of LEAF vehicles sold since 2010 is enough to save 3.8 million barrels of oil a year.
By the year 2019, the LEAF was not only the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe, but also the top-selling car in Norway.
The first generation Nissan LEAF arrived in Malaysia in November 2013 with a lot of publicity and hype due to its possible 195km range and RM168,000 price tag.
At the time, the Nissan brand guardian, Tan Chong invested in 15 public battery charging points from Johor Bahru to Penang island with no fee to charge at all (charging time was estimated to be between 4 to 8 hours). Even this offer did not spur Malaysians, middle class and also the rich to take ownership.
Then a few years later the 2nd generation fully-imported from Japan Nissan Leaf arrived without much tax incentives and an asking price of RM188,888 (for Peninsular Malaysia, on-the-road price with 10 percent sales tax, without insurance and valid for private individual registration), with a three years/60,000km maintenance service, three years/100,000km vehicle warranty and eight years/160,000 lithium-ion battery warranty.
Tan Chong also offered a “subscription programme” for owners which was a three-year-contract with a RM3,500-a-month instalment (Peninsular Malaysia only, without insurance and valid for private individual registration).
At the time, MAI (now rebranded MAAri) had little expertise in evaluating any vehicle and the proposed incentives that should have been accorded and so some car manufacturers benefited heavily from MAI’s inadequacies as a proper automotive institute.
Still, sales were slow and with less enthusiasm from ‘Malaysians claiming to be green’ as they all wanted to drive large fancy Tesla electric cars.
With instant acceleration from 320Nm of torque and a 0-100km/h possible acceleration time of 7.9 seconds, the LEAF was probably the best value electric vehicle (EV) for Malaysians looking to enjoy total green motoring.
When the battery is fully charged, there is a possible 311km of driving range and this is better than the compact rivals from Europe costing much more.
So, now comes the latest generation LEAF with a choice of two powertrains.
The 2023 LEAF S is equipped with a 40-kWh lithium-ion battery and 110-kW electric motor that delivers 147 horsepower, 320Nm of torque and up to 240 kilometers of driving range.
The 2023 Nissan LEAF SV PLUS which is model we guess being launched by Tan Chong in Malaysia features a larger-capacity 60-kWh lithium-ion battery, increasing the driving range to 341 kilometers with its powerful 160-kW electric motor that produces 214 horsepower and 339Nm of torque.
So what will the asking price be? Well, with all its latest technology and higher driving range, you can expect a selling price close to RM198k or so.
