NIssan Leaf is a Better Car Than the Tesla Model 3?

[lillyM3]

The old Nissan Leaf was a glorified golf cart. However, the new Nissan Leaf has a 226 mile battery and ProPilot to compete with Tesla's base model with Autopilot (I am NOT comparing the Nissan Leaf with the higher trim Model 3s). In addition, there are many features on the new Nissan Leaf that are better than the Tesla Model 3; relaxing ePedal driving (when you lift your foot off the "gas" pedal, the car stops) and much smoother ride, just to name a few. At the same price point, the new Nissan Leaf is a better car than the Tesla Model 3?

The following is an honest video comparison review of the Nissan Leaf vs the Tesla Model 3. This is NOT a Tesla fan boy review. I own both vehicles and I'm NOT going to sell either one of them....

 

[Devils son]

The Nissan Leaf battery will degrade much quicker. The Model 3 has a sportier ride (while still comfortable enough), which I prefer. It is also much quicker. Looks a lot better too.

The Leaf a better car? Nope. You might think so, but in a comparison with an e-Kona and e-Niro the Leaf will already bite the dust. And to me the Tesla is by far the better car out of the four, while the Leaf ends dead last.

The M3 might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but 5 years from now the Tesla will still be desireable. The other three most likely will be out of date.

 

[sperkin]

I'm not sure about the leaf, but I just did a road trip in my Model 3 from LA to Vegas in 4 hours with a stop at the Supercharger.

Free Supercharging and Tesla HPWC at the Hotel for free over night charging. Total trip is to travel was $0.

I would not buy any other EV if it can't get to SF or Vegas in a decent amount to tim .

If you don't drive far then a Nissan Leaf could be a way to go, but their pro Pilot is not anywhere near AP.

 

[MoHazee4]

Former Leaf owner here. The Leaf is a great car! Ugly as heck -- but, a great car! The new one is still ugly.

Now a M3 owner - first new car evaar. Love it -- but, the Leaf is an awesome car...here's why

Where the Leaf beats the Tesla

• Overall price
• Price for options
• Warranty & handing of issues
• Stable pricing
• Value

Where Tesla beats the Leaf

• Style & performance
• Technology
• Range

Tesla's poor customer service -- poor handling of their warranty (recently updated) -- and constant price adjustments .... has taken some of the Luster off my Tesla, and from what I have read -- other people too.

The Leaf might not be as dope as the Tesla -- but, Nissan sure is making a quality product they stand behind, for a good price too. All issues we had with our Leaf were handled with minimal hassle.

 

[thaian207]

Bolt, Prius, and Leaf they're all ugly, I would rather drive an ICE.

 

[P85_DA]

Ugly as heck -- The new one is still ugly.

Bolt, Prius, and Leaf they're all ugly, I would rather drive an ICE.

This about sums up the whole thread

 

[J X 3]

@ MoHazee4
The Leaf Plus (62kWh) is 36.55k or about, it costs more than the base Model 3 while being a size class bellow and a much lesser car in every area, perf, safety , comfort.
The battery pack and lack of OTA alone will lead to much higher depreciation than M3.
M3 is more efficient and should also be more reliable as it's designed to last a lot longer.
Value wise, M3 is leaps ahead and it's also cheaper while being much better.

 

[C141medic]

Former Leaf owner here. The Leaf is a great car! Ugly as heck -- but, a great car! The new one is still ugly.

Now a M3 owner - first new car evaar. Love it -- but, the Leaf is an awesome car...here's why

Where the Leaf beats the Tesla

• Overall price
• Price for options
• Warranty & handing of issues
• Stable pricing
• Value

Where Tesla beats the Leaf

• Style & performance
• Technology
• Range

Tesla's poor customer service -- poor handling of their warranty (recently updated) -- and constant price adjustments .... has taken some of the Luster off my Tesla, and from what I have read -- other people too.

The Leaf might not be as dope as the Tesla -- but, Nissan sure is making a quality product they stand behind, for a good price too. All issues we had with our Leaf were handled with minimal hassle.

As a former Leaf lessee, I agree with you to a point. Pro-pilot , while a nice feature is not ready for prime time, in my opinion. I test drove one last year (not sure if they’ve made any improvements since) and pro pilot kept ping ponging all over the road. Also, abruptly disengaged when it encountered a light shower. The other issue of course is charging infrastructure. Right now no one has Tesla best for that.

 

[Pkmmte]

Stable pricing

You're kidding, right? My wife was in the market for a new vehicle earlier this year. We got a completely different price for every single Leaf we looked at with the exact same options and condition.

The MSRP may have stayed the same, but the real price was always different.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

While I have only been in the autopilot of an S, not the 3, Propilot is not as good, but improved substantially in the 2019. Price point really isn't exactly the same, as you can usually get the plus for a few K less then MSRP. The battery is really equivalent to the 3 standard plus range and size (Leaf well outperforms the EPA 226 in all trim levels). With the full 7,500 federal in place, the difference is still a solid 5-7K between the cars depending on trim level.

 

[ewoodrick]

"The Nissan Leaf battery will degrade much quicker. "


No, it won't. No, it doesn't have the zero Regen issues that Tesla does.

You may have heard that a few years ago, that some Leaf batteries had to be replaced, I'll agree with that. It was pretty much the same time that Tesla was replacing batteries as well.

Sure, there were a few people that had slowed dc fast charging, but folks seen to forget that Tesla will do the same thing.

And as to active battery cooling, there's a lot less of it needed than folks believe. To the contrary, we just went through 4 months of people complaining that the batteries weren't warm enough.

And last, it's range anxiety that says that every car has to have a 500 mile range. I'd dare say the over 50% of the cars in the US never have been over 200 miles in a day

 

[ElectricLee]

The basic true is that in the US, the Model 3 out sells the Leaf by a factor of 10:1 currently. The Leaf sales records are SO bad that you can get 5K dealer discount and still can’t them. But truth be told if the dealers must clear them out at 10K discount and get Fed rebates $7500.

Also the Leaf has been on sale since 2011 and they have not sold the 200,000 limited to trigger reduction tells you that they don't want to sell them or few people really want them. The Leaf Plus are piling up at the dealers, take your pick of discounted/hard to get rid of cars.

It’s like selling you a bunch of Amazon Fire phones, they seem good and feels nice, but for some reason they could not sell well. But at $150, I would get one on the Cheap!

 

[Rottenapplr]

This about sums up the whole thread

Seriously. I would never have brought a leaf bolt or nitro brand new. The m3 is my first new car. I wouldn’t be satisfied owning just a run of the mill ev as my only car. I want a car that’s fast, rwd, handles like a sporty car. And EV. M3 does all of that.

 

[Sherlo]

The old Nissan Leaf was a glorified golf cart. However, the new Nissan Leaf has a 226 mile battery and ProPilot to compete with Tesla's base model with Autopilot (I am NOT comparing the Nissan Leaf with the higher trim Model 3s). In addition, there are many features on the new Nissan Leaf that are better than the Tesla Model 3; relaxing ePedal driving (when you lift your foot off the "gas" pedal, the car stops) and much smoother ride, just to name a few. At the same price point, the new Nissan Leaf is a better car than the Tesla Model 3?

The following is an honest video comparison review of the Nissan Leaf vs the Tesla Model 3. This is NOT a Tesla fan boy review. I own both vehicles and I'm NOT going to sell either one of them....

You had me at bigger side view mirrors for Leaf

 

[UngaBunga1989]

The Tesla M3 is a performance car that also happens to be an efficient EV. The Leaf and Bolt are econo-boxes that happen to be EV’s. The only things they have in common is an electric drive train. I cannot think of many less sexy cars than the Leaf or the Bolt.

Comparing the cars (Leaf and Model 3) on the basis of range is like saying that a Honda Accord and Maserati have the same range based on the size of their gas tanks and MPG ratings — it completely misses the major differentiating points.

Having test driven a 2019 Leaf and as an owner of a M3P (and someone who has driven a M3D too), the cars are just not even close to being in the same league for someone who cares about performance, handling and style. I couldn’t wait for my test drive of the Leaf to end.

 

[Devils son]

"The Nissan Leaf battery will degrade much quicker. "


No, it won't. No, it doesn't have the zero Regen issues that Tesla does.

You may have heard that a few years ago, that some Leaf batteries had to be replaced, I'll agree with that. It was pretty much the same time that Tesla was replacing batteries as well.

Sure, there were a few people that had slowed dc fast charging, but folks seen to forget that Tesla will do the same thing.

And as to active battery cooling, there's a lot less of it needed than folks believe. To the contrary, we just went through 4 months of people complaining that the batteries weren't warm enough.

And last, it's range anxiety that says that every car has to have a 500 mile range. I'd dare say the over 50% of the cars in the US never have been over 200 miles in a day

Sorry, but this is simply not in line with the facts. Yes, there are Tesla’s that needed a battery replacement, but this is highly uncommon. In fact, Tesla batteries have proven to degrade far less then expected.

On the other hand Nissan has a battery replacement program set up because of the fact that there is a problem with degradation.

It is simply not a good BEV. It is probably one of the worst on sale now. While Tesla is ahead of the game as a BEV.

Tesla had it’s own problems. It struggles to keep up with the growth. But as a BEV it is the best on the market.

 

[GHammer]

"The Nissan Leaf battery will degrade much quicker. "

You may have heard that a few years ago, that some Leaf batteries had to be replaced, I'll agree with that. It was pretty much the same time that Tesla was replacing batteries as well.

Sure, there were a few people that had slowed dc fast charging, but folks seen to forget that Tesla will do the same thing.

And as to active battery cooling, there's a lot less of it needed than folks believe. To the contrary, we just went through 4 months of people complaining that the batteries weren't warm enough.

So much wrong with this post. Tesla has never had to replace batteries due to degradation, there have been some replaced due to module failures or pack leaks or contactor failures but these are isolated and not a systematic problem across the line. As for DC charge throttling that is isolated to one particular generation of packs and the throttling is pretty minor in the 90kw range.

As for active battery cooling, it is the single most important factor in lithium battery life, particularly when doing high current DC charging, read up. While Nissan has improved the thermal management it is still not very robust and I believe is still not a liquid system. Arguing that people complain about the downsides of operating in the cold is specious in this regard.

 

[ElectricLee]

The Windows Phones are good too!

 

[ArizonaP85]

Leaf battery range drops like a stone in Arizona. Maybe they'd be okay if restricted to commuting on Coronado Island?

 

[Chancellor32]

Yeahhhhhhhh the leaf is definitely not better than the model 3. Ask 10 people which they would prefer and 12 are going to say Tesla. No one with 1/2 a brain and a decent desire to have fun is going to pick a leaf. Ewwwww yuck.