Nissan LEAF e+ Tekna – the 62kWh LEAF – costs from £35,895 in the UK

The Nissan LEAF e+, the production version of the Nissan LEAF 3.0 e+, costs from £35,895 in the UK in range-topping Tekna trim.

Having delivered the Nissan LEAF 3.0 e+ as a limited edition model to test the waters for a long-range LEAF, Nissan announced in February that the 62kWh LEAF was going to become a mainstream model, giving buyers the option of the regular 40kWH LEAF or the new 62kWH version.

That said, the 62kWh version isn’t available across the LEAF’s trim levels, but reserved for the range-topping Tekna trim. Which means the starting point – even after the £3,500 grant for EVs – is a quite hefty £35,895, almost £5k more than the 40kWh LEAF.

That’s a chunk more than the price difference the Hyundai Kona EV, for example, costs to make the jump to a long range battery; the Kona EV is more like £3k more than its lower-powered sibling. It also makes the 62kWh LEAF more expensive than the range-topping Kona. But the LEAF is a very good car, and you can be pretty sure Nissan has enough batteries to build whatever the demand is.

For your extra £5k you get a LEAF which is good for a 240 mile range and, helpfully, you will also be able to charge the LEAF e+ at 70kW from a 100kW charger, which means an 80 per cent charge in around 40 minutes.

The regular 40kWh LEAF is already quite lively around town, but the LEAF e+ improves performance with 214bhp and an instant 250lb/ft of torque on offer, making it good for 62mph in 7.3 seconds. And it’ll feel quicker than that at town speeds.

The LEAF e+ comes as well-specced as the regular LEAF Tekna – BOSE, Leather and more –  but you can add options like posh paint (£745), ProPILOT (£595) and ProPILOT parking (£1,090).