The trusted voice of the industry
for more than 30 years

Nissan debuts 2018 Leaf

Posted on 06 September, 2017

Nissan has debuted the 2018 Nissan LEAF, the next model of its flagship EV. The specifications for the model closely align with details that leaked early last month. The new Leaf offers a range of 400 km, a 33 per cent increase on the 2017 model. It will have 110 kW of power output and 320 Nm of torque a large increase in power from the current model Leaf, which has an output of 90 horse power and 254Nm of torque. The new leaf comes with autonomous drive technology, used during single-lane driving on highways. The car has an autonomous parking system that takes control of steering, acceleration, braking, shift changing and the parking brake to automatically guide it into a parking spot. The Nissan Leaf was New Zealand’s most popular EV in 2016. The car will go on sale October 2 in Japan. Though with only imported second hand Leaf EVs available for sale on the New Zealand market, it could be some time before we see the 2018 model on our roads. Despite this, the demand for the Leaf is growing. The car climbed to gain 1 per cent of total used imported cars this August. The Leaf is also the most popular EV worldwide with 277,000 units sold since it was released seven years ago. The new Leaf will introduce what Nissan calls e-Pedal technology that will enable the driver to start, accelerate, decelerate and stop by increasing or decreasing the pressure applied to the accelerator. When the accelerator is fully released, regenerative and friction brakes are applied automatically, bringing the car to a stop.