It took two years for the Nissan Leaf to get 47 more miles of range so here’s our bold prediction based on some fact that the 2020 Leaf will get Model 3 like range.
Battery technology grows by leaps and bounds as the months tick by so if there’s an EV that, in my opinion, is an indicator of current consumer level battery technology, it’s the Nissan Leaf. As per Nissan’s press release they dropped earlier last week (Sep. 14, 2018) while Nissan just dropped pricing on their sub $30,000 2019 Nissan Leaf with 150 miles of range, buried close to the bottom was a note stating, “A longer-range version will be available in the future.”
When the Nissan Leaf was first released in 2010, it had an impressive but range-anxiety inducing 73 miles of range according to EPA official testing. You could go on most errands but longer trips were certainly out of the question. Under ideal conditions, Nissan could eke out 138 miles but that was if you’re going at a constant 38 MPH in 68-degree weather with the A/C, conditions that don’t really exist in the real world.
2016 saw the Nissan Leaf get an optional and even larger 30 kWh battery pack with range up to 107 miles, enough for a long trip, if you wanted to given you had a charging station at your destination or where sleeping over at someone’s house given they let you use their 220V.
Last year saw an even larger jump as per the EPA thanks to a standard 40 kWh battery that pumped up range to 150 miles.
Although the Leaf remains largely unchanged for 2019, this addendum from Nissan at the bottom hints at a jump in range that might see the Leaf hit 250 miles of range and beyond.
In order to stay competitive Nissan shuttered its own battery program earlier this year and is now getting batteries from other companies. The Nissan Leaf battery is supplied by Japanese maker Autmotive Energy Supply Corporation which Nissan owns a percentage, but now Nissan is looking to new battery suppliers with better chemistry, a must to get a needed bump in range.
While some are thinking Leafs might get a bump to 200 miles, I don’t think that’s competitive enough. A Nissan Leaf with 250 miles sounds more like it, to me.
You heard it here first.
