“This is an important moment for me,” said incoming new Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa. The man formerly in charge of global product planning will soon move into the big boss chair, and from there, he will present a new, invigorated Nissan lineup that he and his team hope will reverse the Japanese carmaker’s fortunes.
The first of which is this. Welcome to the brand-new, third-generation Nissan Leaf. It’s Nissan’s longstanding electric car—indeed one of the early pioneers of mainstream electric mobility—here reimagined as an embiggened, upright, aero-efficient crossover with loads of range and loads of tech.
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Platform enthusiasts will be delighted to know that this new Leaf is spun off the same bones that underpin the Ariya (the ‘CMF-EV’ base), but Nissan is being coy at this stage on more technical details like battery size or power output or acceleration. Or even pics.
Powertrain basics and range, however, we do know. The former is the company’s ‘three-in-one’ setup, which modularizes the motor, the inverter, and the reducer. On the latter, Nissan’s vehicle program boss Francois Bailly told us that we can expect 600km on a single charge. That’s...decent.
A “confident EV drive,” he explained, was one of the core guiding principles behind the new Leaf’s construction “Highway is the key for us,” he said, but not at the expense of everything else.
The other guiding force behind the new Leaf was the styling, and it’s certainly grown up from its humble 2010 beginnings. It’s shorter by around 15cm versus the current car, but of is much more upright, with a huge emphasis on aerodynamic efficiency thanks to that sleek front and swoopy roofline. It also looks much more ‘New Nissan’ like the Ariya. Only these two pictures to go on at this early stage, but you get the, uh, picture.
Outside of the shiny new suit, it’ll come with 19-inch wheels (19-inchers on a Leaf!), a panoramic “moonroof,” and in the USA, a NACS charging port, allowing it to sneak onto Tesla chargers, vastly opening up its long-haul appeal.
And of course, its universal appeal. Like we said, it’s part of a new lineup Espinosa and his team hope will reverse Nissan’s fortunes, which you’ve no doubt been aware of. “There’s several things that we have to work on,” he told us of the company’s current predicament and challenges. “One is the stability of our revenue flow. The second thing is cost—cost has to be improved. The third is speed, shortening our development cycle.
“And fourth is the additional measures of the turnaround. You will hear about that in due course. There’s a lot of work to be done in communications externally and internally, employee morale also needs to be improved.
“As you see, I’ve got a bunch of things to take care of.”
Nissan’s global performance boss Guillame Cartier told us: “The belief in the turnaround is here. What is important is how we can communicate, how we can be understood. The noise on Nissan was not always positive, whereas there is a lot of positivity to give, starting with the product.”
This particular product will be made in England at the Sunderland plant—a plant that’s turning into the brand’s “flagship EV hub”—and will be launched in Europe later this year. Alongside the ‘audacious’ new Micra—now a full EV—and an incoming new Juke (both previewed above).
“To our passionate fans and loyal owners around the world, I can assure you, this is just the beginning of an exciting journey ahead,” Espinosa said.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
