# Nissan Leaf

62 Hacker News commenters recommended Nissan Leaf and 49 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (15 owners).

**Verdict:** Recommended for cheap driving, low running costs and short city trips; the most common caveat is air-cooled batteries that degrade and charge slowly.

## Why people recommend it

- Cheap used cars (3 comments): "The used market is flooded with perfectly good Leafs, dirt cheap, the lowest yearly maintenance vehicle on CarEdge." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49843958)) "A used Gen 1 Leaf will cost you well under $10k for a car with 50k miles on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47441841)) "If you don't need a lot of range, a used Leaf is pretty cheap as EVs go." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50122250))
- Good for short city trips (4 comments): "It's a great little car, perfect for the daily short trips for which we bought it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48902374)) "added enough range to eliminate range anxiety whilst tootling about the metro area" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49206158)) "They can still be viable used cars for city driving and affordable to drive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504075))
- Low running costs (2 comments): "If your use case for a vehicle matches the 1st gen Leaf, it blows away anything else except a bicycle in terms of cost per distance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47428616)) "we've saved about 25% of the purchase price of the Leaf in spending less on petrol" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47483805))
- Battery health holds up well (2 comments): "Specifically the second gen "plus" models are great due to the larger battery meaning they have less wear." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49672262)) "So far it still holds 100% its original charge capacity after 5 years and almost 40K miles." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851924))

## What people warn about

- Air-cooled battery degrades quickly (4 comments): "Those 15 year old Nissan Leafs have terrible battery degradation, because they're not liquid cooled (hot = bad)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48792746)) "The battery management system uses air cooling, so charging rates are quickly limited by the pack heating up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49881920)) "The early generation Nissan Leafs (no battery cooling) did most of the work to tar EVs longevity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48793003))
- Slow, non-standard charging (3 comments): "The main downside on long trips is the DC is chamedo, not standard ccs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49772790)) "It would have been perfect but for the slow and non-standard charger." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49836536)) "Funny looking, less than 100 miles range, and slow charging via a port that never caught on outside of Japan" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47145761))
- Limited range on long trips (3 comments): "We considered getting a used Leaf but my wife had too much range anxiety" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48644833)) "Funny looking, less than 100 miles range, and slow charging via a port that never caught on outside of Japan" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47145761)) "my wife had too much range anxiety, even for vehicles with 70 miles of range" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48637093))
- Privacy issues in the car (2 comments): "It's a shame the Nissan Leaf has so many privacy issues, because otherwise the price is good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45836753)) "If I enable "privacy mode" in my Nissan Leaf I can't turn on the heater remotely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264430))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Tesla vehicles](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tesla-vehicles.md): 209 recommend
- [BYD electric cars](https://hackerapproved.com/p/byd.md): 157 recommend
- [Ferrari Luce](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ferrari-luce.md): 140 recommend
- [Tesla Model 3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tesla-model-3.md): 128 recommend
- [Rivian electric vehicle](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rivian.md): 73 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/leaf.html)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Nissan Leaf", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nissan-leaf/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).