Earlier this month, Nissan revealed their new Nissan Leaf e+, a car built in response to Hyundai's 279-mile all electric Kona. The new Leaf has been fitted with a 62 kWh battery, 22kWh more than the current 40kWh car and was debuted at CES 2019 in Las Vegas. The latest version of the second generation Leaf now has 215bhp in addition to the increase in range.
Having been tested under strict WLTP rules, the new Leaf achieved 239 miles from a single charge, up from the 168 mile range of the current 40kWh version. The batteries themselves aren't massively bigger than the 40kWh versions thanks to denser cells. This being said, the Leaf e+ does now sit 5mm taller than the regular 40kWh version.
Bigger batteries needed bigger motors. The engine now produces 215bhp with an impressive 340Nm of torque and a top speed up 10% on the last model at 98 mph.
Luckily even though the batteries are bigger in capacity, the charging time isn't longer. Thanks to a new 70kW quick charger, up 20kW on the regular cars charger at 50kW, the charge time up to 80% charge remains at 40-minutes. The new 70kW charger is still compatible with 100kW charging systems.
Other updates with the e+ include a bigger 8" touchscreen media display, newly updated navigation, different badging and a new front fascia with blue accents.
Prices for the upgraded Leaf e+ will be released closer to its release this summer.