Hail to the Leaf

The Nissan Leaf was a car that could only be loved by its owner. It had bug eyes for headlights, the body of a Bulbasaur, a toy-like startup sound, and a large plastic nub in the center console.

I was one of those who owned the first-gen Leaf, and while I was excited about the redesign, I only had eyes for the second-gen model. Like many first-time EV owners, it was my first real all-electric car, the one that changed how I thought about each journey and how to get there. I discovered what it was like to own a gas station in my own home.

It was a sign of the revolution that would come. The future of cleaner personal transportation is dependent on the EV. Now that the Leaf is going out of production, it makes sense to say goodbye to one of the best cars I have ever owned.

It wasn't a perfect car. It was not suitable for a long road trip. The model I owned had a range guess-o-meter that showed 70–80 miles on it, but I commuted locally and in perfect weather, and it had crept into triple digits.

That range was hard to find on the highway. I used to stop at a DC fast charging station on the way from New York to Baltimore. I didn't care, I was determined to only drive electric from there on out, and it helped that I could charge my car for free at work.

In the used market in the low to mid $10,000 range, you could find the Nissan Leaf's higher trims in 2015. The CHAdemo DC fast charging port that could charge the car to 80 percent in about 30 minutes was more likely to be found in these models.

The CHAdemo fast charging standard didn't beat out the CCS combo connector that most of the industry has adopted for the US market The company plans to add support for CCS combo at its stations soon.

It is not currently available in the US, despite the fact that it was offered by the company. CHAdemo is still available in almost all places, but major charging networks like Electrify America are starting to stop selling CHAdemo in favor of opening more taps for the growingTesla population.

The biggest issue with the Leaf is the batteries. The lack of a liquid-cooled system made the batteries degrade quickly in hotter climates.

Improvements to the battery module design weren't drastic. The first significant battery upgrade for the Leaf was in 2016 when it went from 24kWh to 30kWh. It wasn't cooled, and neither were the redesigns in the years to come.

As the leaf got older, the used market became more interesting. If dealers posted a clear picture of the dashboard, you could count the bars of the battery health meter. The meter traveled vertically alongside the state-of- charge meter, and a very healthy battery could be identified if it still had all 12 bars.

If you really wanted to know if the battery was viable, you would need to get physical access and connect the Leaf spy app on your phone or computer. The battery meter could be temporarily reset and appear to have a perfect battery, even when it doesn't.

If your own Leaf has a battery out of warranty, you could try a third-party service that retrofits newer packs from donorLeafs that can enable longer range. To make sure they don't miss out on a crucial warranty-covered battery replacement, Leaf owners need to keep a constant eye on the battery meter, purchase date, and mileage. If you wanted to own a Leaf with a useless battery, it would be the worst outcome.

Despite some design flaws and the issue of Nissan hanging onto a dying charging standard, it was a very practical vehicle that was more affordable than the BMW i3 and had more cargo space than the Ford Focus Electric. It was not a Model S, which was the only good looking electric car at the time, but they remained financially out of reach for most car buyers.

The Leaf got a face-lift in the last year. The car was essentially the same after Nissan included a 200+ miles option. For most of its life, the Leaf's starting price was close to $30,000. With the federal $7,500 incentive, you could have landed a lower "S" trim that didn't have the leatherette seats and steering wheels, but it would still be cheaper.

Car buyers weren't interested Nissan still hasn't triggered a phaseout of its sales based federal incentives, which shows how weak Leaf sales have been over the years Ford is about to hit the 200,000 sales threshold with the Mustang Mach-E, which is the only EV it has been selling. The 40kWh battery models of the Nissan Leaf can go about 150 miles on one charge, which is why Nissan dropped the price of the model to less than $30,000.

Nissan popularized the "zero emissions" marketing soundbite that many EV manufacturers use today, and it helped pioneer the EV market with one of the most affordable and all electric options. The Leaf was a spectacle with its weird design and low-pitched warning sounds. Nissan followed the product differentiation path that Toyota and others did, making the internal combustion cars look more attractive, and don't stir the pot too hard on the fossil fuel economy that all automakers have counted on forever.

Nissan treated their electric car differently than the other way around. When other EV manufacturers were starting with luxury models or compliance builds, it built and sold an affordable electric car. Even if the rest of Nissan's lineup overshadowed it in marketing, it was still a genuine effort to spur mass adoption of EV. It was a car that the company built for more than a decade, and yet it didn't change the Leaf at all.

The Nissan Leaf was the first all-electric New York City taxi and the first to demonstrate car-to- home power backup technology. It would be sad to see that era end if Nissan pulls the plug on the Leaf, but I am hopeful that it will come back later in life.

Nissan gave me one of the best car experiences I have ever had. With the $18.6 billion initiative to transform itself into an electric vehicle company, we might see better and more affordable options in the near future.

Umar Shakir is a photographer.