The next Nissan Leaf will be a visual crossbreed between the latest Micra supermini and out-going Leaf. Frontal styling will be headlined by a mono-tooth, V-Motion grille, chiseled lower bumper and wedge-shaped headlamps.

The view from the side will be fairly conventional; tall and stubby proportions, floating roof and a blacked-out C-Pillar up-kink are the go here. Out back, the hatch will be dominated by horizontal thin-wedge tail lamps and a subtle rear diffuser.


Perhaps the biggest nuisance with the current Leaf is the limited range. At 107 miles, it lags behind Chevrolet’s Bolt (238 miles), the upcoming Tesla Model 3 (at least 215 miles), Hyundai Ioniq EV (124 miles) and BMW’s quirky i3 (114 miles). 

It’s believed that Nissan will remedy this by offering both 40 kWh and 60-kilowatt-hour, lithium-ion battery packs, with the latter providing range well past the 200 mile mark. This should see an increase in performance too, perhaps with the 0-60 sprint nudging into the 7-second bracket for the larger battery version.


At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, Nissan revealed the next-generation Leaf would be equipped with its own ProPilot autonomous driving technology. This will allow the new Leaf to be operated in self-drive mode, on single lane highway environments. Further updates over time, will extend capabilities to include multi-lane self-driving and a Seamless Autonomous Mobility command centre - for self-drive vehicles caught up in problematic situations.

Look for a world premiere of the 2018 Leaf this fall, with pricing, features and specs to be announced at that time. Deliveries are tipped to start before Christmas.