Tim Gallagher, senior manager of Leaf and Electric Vehicles for Nissan, has officially confirmed to IEVs that the long-awaited all-new Leaf is ready to reveal globally and finally go on sale later this year. However, there aren't any exact details on the new EV yet, the rumor mill has been circulating out news that the Leaf will have an autonomous driving ability.
According to a tweet from @NissanEVnewsUS, the 2018 Nissan Leaf will debut this September. Since tweets are limited to 140 characters, not a lot of information was given out but previous interactions with Nissan executives help piece together a few details. The 2017 Nissan Leaf currently gets 107 miles per charge, but sooner it may change. "We can get to 200 or even 300 miles. We can. The question is cost," answered Takao Asami, Nissan Senior Vice President of research and advanced engineering, when asked at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show.
The lithium-ion battery that will come with 2018 Leaf has already made an appearance in the Renault Zoe EV, which currently get 189 miles per charge, at least when it debuted at last year's Paris Motor Show. The supplier for the 2018 Leaf's battery will be LG Chem and there are high hopes for a more acceptable range. Also, Nissan announced earlier this year that the new version of the LEAF will feature its ProPILOT, a driver assist system comparable to Tesla's Autopilot.
Furthermore, apart from the performance upgrades expected with the new powertrain, the next-gen is also set to feature a significant design refresh. Far behind the launch of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, the 2018 Leaf is said to have a similar price range of the Bolt EV or slightly higher price which depends on the specifications. If the Leaf is released soon after its September debut, it would be about the same time the Tesla Model 3 production starts going full-swing.
