Drivers of the 2014 Nissan Leaf will be able to give up on gasoline for a net cost as low as $21,480, as the best-selling electric vehicle in the country is now on sale with an MSRP of $28,980. Just remember that, along with the $7,500 federal tax credit that lowers Leaf pricing so significantly, a growing number of state and local programs are available to reduce consumer costs even further.
Owners won’t have to worry about reduced value, though, as engineers actually have added more content to the car in the form of a standard rear-view camera system. Plus, they still benefit from a peppy 107 horsepower and 187 lb.-ft. of torque from the Leaf’s 80-kW AC motor, which, working in tandem with Nissan’s advanced lithium-ion battery, enables:
- An EPA-certified all-electric driving range of 84 miles
- Efficiency performance of 126 MPGe city/101 MPGe highway/114 MPGe combined
- Available fast-charging capability that can provide the Leaf with an 80 percent charge in about 30 minutes
- The confidence of an 8-year/100,000-mile battery-pack warranty
The 2014 Nissan Leaf comes to market with plenty of momentum, too, helped by the fact that both the car itself and its lithium-ion battery pack are assembled in the United States, at the automaker’s facility in Smyrna, Tennessee. With local production in place, the Leaf not only set an all-time monthly sales record in December, when dealers sold 2,529 units and saw a 69.8 percent gain in volume, but it also finished the year with a new record, tallying 22,610 sales and a whopping 130.3 percent advance over 2012.
