The popularity of the Nissan Leaf is undeniable, as is the fact that Elon Musk was right in saying it’s okay but doesn’t do anything in particular very well. Even so, it’s good enough to impress people and now Nissan says it’s actually converting buyers into EV fans.
In fact, it says that one in two buyers would not switch back to a conventionally powered vehicle, while 95 percent would “be happy to recommend it to a friend.” Another percentage, 64 percent this time, “say it’s better to drive than a petrol or diesel vehicle and one man even sold his Aston Martin to buy a pair of them in order to avoid domestic fights.”
There must still be those who were not completely won over by the Leaf, but Nissan Motor GB’s Limited Managing Director, James Wright explained that “the issues that the naysayers said would hinder ownership have not materialised and, in fact, the feeling from Leaf owners is that they would never go back to a traditional combustion engine. We were the first to bring a mass-produced electric car to market, so it stands to reason that we are also the first to prove the genuine viability of electric motoring.”
Nissan says that nine out of ten buyers use the Leaf as the main family car, while “more than a third said that they do not have to plan journeys in advance any more than they did before owning an electric car, especially as 89% of them charge up their LEAF overnight at home.”
The manufacturer doesn’t say how big a pool of owners it questioned for this study. All it says it features information from “a sample” of the 6,500 UK Leaf owners.
Photo Gallery
