We’re now less than a month away from the official 2018 Nissan Leaf presentation. As expected, some leaks about specs and prices are already emerging.
However, Autobytel is the first reputable source to unveil the 2018 Nissan Leaf specs and prices in great detail. I think that this information was leaked by some dealer that already has access to an official Nissan online configurator, just like what happened in the past – when the 30 kWh battery was introduced.
Without further ado, here you have some of the most interesting specs:
2018 Nissan Leaf unofficial specifications
Notice that the 2018 Nissan Leaf is bigger and heavier than the outgoing 2017 version. However, Nissan managed to make it more efficient by improving the aerodynamics and the powertrain.
The specs of the electric motor (110 kW) and battery (40 kWh) offered without a price increase are very much in line with what I expected all along. I just wasn’t expecting that the launch of this new improved Leaf was postponed by a whole year since I announced it a year ago. I now understand that the ProPILOT tweaking and the ongoing battery negotiations required to gradually move away from AESC to LG Chem, prevented it to happen sooner.
Now the biggest piece of the puzzle still missing is when will the bigger LG Chem battery option come to the higher trims and how much capacity will it have. I’m starting to doubt it’ll be 60 kWh, more likely to be around 50 kWh, just enough to get 200 miles (322 km) EPA range. Remember that Nissan doesn’t want to make the Leaf more expensive than it already is.
The “good news” is that since this 2018 Nissan Leaf is more a facelift than a new generation, I expect production to reach high levels right from the start without major difficulties.
Anyways, as you already know, until Nissan finally unveils the official specs and prices, consider these figures as “pre-official”, but very, very likely to be confirmed soon.
I’m still curious to see if Nissan will finally offer the possibility to get a 3-phase internal charger in Europe. I’m convinced that it’s going to happen and I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t.
Thanks “Leaf” for the heads up!
PS: I want to thank all the people that regularly send me emails with news or suggesting material for new articles (I read them all), unfortunately my time is limited and I’ll prioritize news related to what matters the most now, by this I mean the TM3 and the new and improved 2018 Nissan Leaf.
What do you think about these specs? Are they what you were expecting or not? What information is still missing that you want to know about this electric car?
