First seen in a trio of images in March 2025, Nissan has finally unveiled the third-gen Leaf electric car in full ahead of sales commencing in global markets. The iconic model, however, undergoes major changes over its predecessors, from being underpinned by Renault-Nissan's new dedicated CMF-EV platform, to featuring the latest in tech and more notably, no longer being a hatchback.
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New Leaf takes the shape of a small coupe-SUV
More detailed images of the Leaf reveal that Nissan has gone with a coupe-SUV look for the new Leaf, along with providing our first clear look at the SUV’s rear. The front end, as seen previously, draws some stylistic inspiration from the Ariya with a reinterpretation of the V-Motion grille flanked by boomerang-shaped headlights with unique lighting signatures. Depending on the market and variant, a lightbar spans the width of the fascia above the grille and even the Nissan badge is illuminated.
Moving to the rear, the boot lip features an almost ducktail design, with a prominent blacked-out section housing the two-piece tail lamps, which incorporate three-dimensional lighting elements and a third stop light. The rear Nissan badge is replaced by a wordmark while the bumper gets notable use of cladding.
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Blacked out tail section and integrated lip spoiler gives the rear a pseudo-ducktail design.
Moving to the cabin, the new Leaf gets a walkthrough design up front with the central floor console not connected to the dashboard. Depending on the spec, the dash is crowned by either twin 12.3-inch or 14.3-inch displays for the instrument cluster and infotainment. The infotainment display is underlined by a touch sensitive panel housing controls for climate controls. Physical buttons are minimal and only for essential functions such as the hazard lamps, volume controls, drive mode selection, and the gear selector.
Minimalist cabin features few physical buttons; dash dominated by a pair of screens.
On the tech front, Nissan says that the new Leaf is available with a host of driver assistance functions, including ProPilot Assist, Intelligent Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, and Driver Monitor System. Other features include an 8-point 3D surround view monitor function along with an Invisible Hood View and a Front Wide View display option, the latter allowing users to partially see around obstacles directly in front of the vehicle.
Depending on the variant users either get twin 12.3-inch displays or larger 14.3-inch displays.
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Nissan also says that the Leaf is its first car to feature a Dimming Panoramic Roof with embedded Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) technology letting users adjust its opaqueness at the press of a button.
Nissan says that the Leaf is its first car to get a dimming panoramic sunroof.
Moving to the powertrain, the new Leaf is offered with two battery packs – a 52 kWh or a larger 72 kWh unit. The former is paired with an electric motor pushing out 174 bhp and 345 Nm while the latter come with a more powerful 215 bhp and 355 Nm unit. Nissan says that the larger battery model has a WLTP range of up to 603 km while the 52 kWh model will do up to 434 km.
On the charging front, Nissan says that the Leaf will support 150 kW DC fast charging with North American variants being offered with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector to allow access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.
Sales of the new-gen Leaf are expected to commence in global markets towards the end of the year.
