Increase in Nissan LEAF Range from 73 Miles to 373 Miles Shows Astounding Improvements in Electric Cars

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Last Updated on: 28th March 2025, 02:24 pm

Nissan slipped out teaser images of the next-generation Nissan LEAF this week. Shifting into crossover territory, it’s a bit different from what has come before, and I’d guess will be Nissan’s most popular LEAF ever. But aside from the look, something powerful struck me, amping up the news much more than anything else.

Unfortunately, Nissan didn’t provide much detail on the coming 2026 LEAF. However, someone at Nissan slipped BBC’s Top Gear the critical news that we can expect 600 km (373 miles) of range with the new LEAF. That’s about 100 miles more than the current LEAF offers! However, beyond that, the really impressive bit is how far electric vehicle technology has come in the past decade-plus.

The first Nissan LEAF was the 2011 model, and it had 73 miles (117 km) of range — at a cost of $33,600 if Google’s AI research is right. (That does sound like what I recall.)

The current Nissan LEAF (not the coming next-gen crossover) comes in two trims. The first trim has a rated range of 149 miles (240 km) and starts at $28,140, while the higher trim has a rated range of 212 miles (341 km) and starts at $36,190. Admittedly, this generation of the LEAF is not particularly competitive in the EV market.

Pricing for the LEAF has remained pretty stable over the years — staying in the same general price range. So, one would expect it will remain in that arena with the updated generation again. But if we’re going to 373 miles of range, look at how much of an improvement that is over 15 years prior! I wonder if Nissan will highlight the change as part of a 15-year anniversary of the model.

Of course, that’s the kind of improvement in range for cost that we’ve seen across the industry in the past 15 years. The nice thing about the LEAF is that it was one of the first modern EVs and was the top selling EV for years, so being able to compare its progress over the years is one of the cleanest ways to show how the tech and industry have evolved.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Nissan ARIYA, Nissan’s second fully electric model, has a rated range of 216 to 289 miles and starts around $40,000, with the base price of the highest trip starting around $54,000. That’s not as good of a range-for-cost ratio as the next-gen LEAF is expected to get, but the ARIYA is in a higher class, a somewhat larger and fancier vehicle. Also, for all we know, the 2026 version of the ARIYA will have improved range. Though, a key with the LEAF is that its smaller size and better efficiency will help it get more out of the batteries.

For anyone who has driven electric cars for a while, we know all too well the two questions non-EV owners have about electric cars — how far can they drive, and how long do they take to charge. Most people think they need far more range than they do, and most people don’t realize that home EV charging is much more convenient than filling up a gas car. The other thing they don’t know is just how much EV tech has improved in the past 10–15 years. Answering “373 miles” to that first question may still not click in many people’s minds — they may think they need 500 or 600 miles of range (which, of course, they do not unless they are in a very niche segment of the market). But aside from trying to explain how much you can drive with 373 miles in the battery (almost twice the range of my 2019 Tesla Model 3), it might be useful to just make this point to them.

Here’s what I might say to someone asking the typical general questions about electric car range and charging time: “It depends on what electric car you get, but the first Nissan LEAF had 73 miles of range and the new one has 373 miles of range! You can now go super far in an electric car before needing to recharge. In fact, the average US driver could recharge just once a week with this car! Of course, it’s so simple just plugging the car in when you get home that it makes more sense to just keep it topped up every day just in case you need to make a sudden urgent drive to the other side of Florida.” Perhaps that would provide more context and understanding than just providing some numbers they’re not really prepared to assimilate.

What do you think? How serendipitous is it that the next-gen LEAF is supposed to have 300 miles more range than the first-gen one, and how big of a deal is it? How would you use this info to help more people live a nicer, more convenient EV life?