Field Of Dreams (Part 5) - Nissan Leaf SL

The only car here sold exclusively as an electric should ace this test, right? Nissan’s expensive and risky clean-sheet approach should give it no excuses for falling short of outright total domination. And indeed, the Leaf does a lot of things very well.

The only car here sold exclusively as an electric should ace this test, right?

It and the Focus are the luxury cars of the test. They both deliver lots of interior space, a pillow-top ride, and the most amenities. Though there are less-expensive S and SV versions of the Leaf, all are equipped with heated seats both front and rear plus a heated steering wheel, which is nice when you’re trying to con-serve range by not running the more energy-intensive cabin heater. However, Nissan neglected to install a telescoping steering column.

Except for a few too many pieces of hard interior plastic, everything about the Leaf is soft, from the cushy leather buckets to the way the steering and suspension respond to driver inputs. The Leaf lists and rolls with languid motions, like a sailboat tacking in a middling swell. It is happiest when following taillights in city traffic. The brakes are only just adequate.

Nissan’s designers went for a futuristic motif, with all-digital displays and a kind of computer-mouse gear selector that takes no time to master

Nissan’s designers went for a futuristic motif, with all-digital displays and a kind of computer-mouse gear selector that takes no time to master. The car hums a few bars of massage music on startup. What the driver sees ahead is a series of stacked ellipses, from the arched cluster to the (distant) steering rim to the speedometer up top. This being a dedicated EV, you’d expect a full complement of readouts and computer coaches to help you stretch the range, and no car in the test gives you more. There’s even a battery-temperature gauge, unique in the group, as if you’re supposed to know what to do with the information.

This being a dedicated EV, you’d expect a full complement of readouts and computer coaches to help you stretch the range, and no car in the test gives you more

Push the blue button on the steering wheel and the nav display handily shows your range in concentric circles on the map, the larger one a one-way trip, the smaller for a round trip. Push it again to be shown the nearest charging stations. The center screen also can show you current energy consumption by both the drive motor and the car’s auxiliary systems (the Fit and Spark also have a version of this), plus a full menu of energy data, from your consumption history to your recharge times based on several levels of charging power.

No question, the Leaf’s creators fretted over its EV-centric details, even if the baggy styling could use a little work. The real problem for us is that the Leaf isn’t as composed as the Focus and the Fit, and it isn’t much fun to drive.