We’ve said ourselves that the second-generation Nissan Leaf is an excellent little electric vehicle with its one big downside being the sub-par driving range. The Leaf’s Environmental Protection Agency rating of 150 miles on a full charge isn’t terrible, but it also isn’t up to snuff with the Chevy Bolt or the Tesla Model 3 which can both cover well over 200 miles with a full battery.
We’ve been promised a longer-range Leaf E-Plus, but haven’t heard a lot of details about it until now. In an interview with AutoGuide, Nissan’s director of EV Marketing and Sales Strategy, Brian Maragno gave some info what EV enthusiasts have been waiting to hear, but omitted the statistic we want to hear the most.
Maragno basically confirmed what we already expected, the Leaf E-Plus will have a higher-capacity battery with more range and more horsepower. “A larger capacity battery lends itself towards two things: one is obvious: more range,” Maragno told AutoGuide. “The other one, which is maybe a little less obvious, but equally as true, is additional horsepower and output.”
He shared that the extended-range Leaf will have 200 horsepower which is a fairly significant improvement from the standard 142-hp Leaf that’s on the market now. We can’t say for sure, but we’re hoping this brings us a step closer to a high-performance Leaf Nismo.
Unfortunately, the actual range is still a mystery. AutoGuide speculates that it should hit or exceed the 200-mile mark, which seems to be the magic number for EV range. We think 200 miles sounds about right and we really hope it comes to fruition.
If you want a faster Leaf with longer range, you’ll still be waiting a bit for a Nissan Leaf E-Plus. Pricing and availability are still unknown, but we know for sure that it will be a 2019 model. That makes us hopeful that it will hit showrooms by the end of this year.
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