2019 Nissan LEAF vs Renault ZOE

What's the difference?

With its tall asking price, limited government initiatives and geography working against it, I don’t quite think the Leaf is going to revolutionise the EV landscape in Australia quite the way it has in Europe. It’s still a compelling option for those who want to (and can afford to) jump on the EV train a little early, and who don’t necessarily need to traverse the distance between cities often. It also looks to the future of those wanting to smooth out their electricity bills or go 'off-the-grid', so the Leaf is certainly one to watch in this space.

The Renault Zoe is a fun to drive, ultra-efficient, practical little hatch. But the dollar-shaped elephant in the room is its price. Without the government ZEV subsidies offered in other markets, it's wickedly expensive, and with fresh competition in the shape of a new 'normalised' Nissan Leaf coming soon it'll have to work hard to wean more than a handful of small-car buyers off their fossil-fuel addiction.

If someone told you that this was the new-generation Nissan Pulsar, would it really be a stretch to believe them? I think not. Today’s electric cars are looking less and less zany.

Sure, the Leaf still has some wacky Japanese design points, but so does the current-generation Civic hatch.

Nissan’s “Zero Emissions” insignia is emblazoned across the sides and rear of the car, and it has Nissan’s EV design points in the gloss black body highlights, and blue ripple pattern in the grille. There are some rather anonymous-looking alloys compared to the sci-fi turbofan ones opted for by Hyundai’s EV range, and that’s about it really.

Inside, the Leaf isn’t too far removed from the brand’s regular passenger car range. There’s the same D-shaped steering wheel as the one that now appears in the Qashqai small SUV, as well as a vastly improved centre stack, with a fantastic new 8.0-inch screen. The interior has subtle blue highlights to remind you of its electric underpinnings in the seat stitching, oddly designed gear selector knob and through the dash insert on the passenger side.

You have to admire how subtle it all is. The doorcards and dash-top are clad in soft-touch materials to match those lovely seats. If there’s anything I could complain about here it’s just that aside from a few highlights it’s all a bit samey in the colour department.

So the Leaf is styled so subtly it could be anonymous… Some will see that as a very good thing, especially for an EV.

Renault claims no less than 60 patents came out of the Zoe's development, but while BMW's i3 is as hip as Kendrick Lamar on his third encore, and even Toyota's long-serving Prius hybrid still looks ready to roll onto the set of the next Avengers movie, this little hatch isn't shouty at all.

It seamlessly merges into the automotive landscape. A cute, small car with a few flashy blue bits in its head and tail-lights giving the only clue to its distinctly unusual internals.

Underpinned by the same platform as the Clio (with an identical wheelbase) the Zoe is slightly longer (+21mm), fractionally thinner (-2mm) and quite a bit taller (+114mm) than its conventionally powered sibling.

Lead exterior designer  Jean Sémériva has literally left his mark on the car, with a full-size thumb print applied in low-relief to the rear door handles. Nice touch.

And monsieur Sémériva has shown admirable restraint in a cool design combining soft curves around the nose, front guards and rear end, with sharp character lines top and tailing the car's flanks.

Vaguely diamond-shaped tail-lights mix a clear lens cover with those nifty blue highlights and brilliant LEDs for an arresting brake and indicator display.

Open the door and a similar blend of tech and tradition creates a clean and simple interior, with strategically placed bright-metal finishes highlighting key elements.

A broad TFT digital instrument screen sits under a minimalist hood, with the 7.0-inch 'R-Link' multimedia screen dominating a central stack lifted by a shiny black face and an illuminated blue keyline around the heating and ventilation controls.

A printed circuit pictogram on the front headrests and left-hand side of the dash is a creative reminder of the Zoe's means of propulsion. And the front seats feature a decorative curved panel, defined by dark piping on each side of the backrest.

Tech highlights include the TomTom Live nav system's ability to describe a circle showing the car's operational radius on current charge, determining whether you can reach a nominated destination. It also taps you into weather updates, traffic danger zones and Renault Assistance.

Plus, the drive-management system can report on energy usage and assess driving behaviour, so lead foots have nowhere to hide.

The Leaf is on the larger side for a hatchback, and with its electric drivetrain layout comes some inherent benefits.

No fuel tank, for example, brings a deep and wide boot space, rated at 405 litres, which isn’t the biggest space in the hatch segment, but definitely on the larger side, and rear seat space is decent, too.

Sadly the rear seats don’t get air vents, a common faux-pas in cars this size, but they do get heated seats which is pretty special. The rear seats are also clad in the same thick padding and leather trim which makes the front ones so comfortable.

Up front there are decently-sized trenches and bottle holders in the doors, decent cupholders in the centre stack as well as a half-way decent console box. Under the centre stack, there is also a spot well suited to a phone, as that’s also where the USB port is for screen mirroring.

The seats are wide and comfortable, but the driver’s position is a little high, giving an SUV-like feel. Annoyingly, the steering column doesn’t have telescopic reach adjust, making the wheel feel too far away, perhaps too close to the dash, for many people.

Like most compact hatches the Zoe offers plenty of space up front and gets a bit squeezy in the back. Although the first surprise is that there's no height adjustment for either front seat.

Happily that wasn't a big issue. At 183cm I was still able to find a good driving position, with storage running to two cupholders (one small, one laughably tiny), plus a pen slot and two oddments trays in the centre console. The second of those trays houses a 12-volt outlet, SD card slot, 'aux-in' jack and USB port.

There are small bottleholders and storage pockets in each front door, a medium-size (7.0-litre) glove box with an open tray above it, and a small tray on the lower part of the dash on the driver's side.

Rear head and legroom is passable for a car of this size, but storage is limited to modest door bins and a single cupholder at the back of the centre console.

However, it's cargo space where the Zoe really raises eyebrows, with 338 litres available (to the parcel shelf) with the single piece rear seatback (as in, it doesn't split-fold) upright.

That's enough to easily swallow our three-piece hard suitcase set (35, 68 and 105 litres), or the CarsGuide pram. In fact, we were able to fit the largest suitcase and the pram at the same time, which is mighty impressive for a city-sized hatch. Push the rear seat flat and space grows to 1225 litres (to the roof), which is heaps.

Carpeting for the boot has been sourced from the cheap 'n' cheerful bin, but there are D-shaped anchor shackles, decent lighting and handy bag hooks back there.

The boot's unlikely volume is partly due to the absence of a spare of any description, a repair/inflator kit being your only option. And in case you were wondering, towing is "prohibited" (Renault's word, not mine).

Built at Renault's Flins plant, 40km west of Paris, on the same line as the Clio, the Zoe's offered in two grades; Life ($47,490, before on-road costs), and Intens ($49,490 BOC) as tested here.

That's big bucks for a little car. At just under $50,000 you're looking at internal-combustion competitors like the Audi A3, BMW 1 Series, and Merc A-Class. And while the Zoe's a long way from spartan, it's an equal distance away from luxurious.

That said, the standard features list includes, climate control (with remote 'pre conditioning' activation), 16-inch 'Black Shadow' alloy rims, cruise control, 3D Arkamys audio (with DAB radio, voice recognition, two 'boomer' speakers, two rear bi-cone speakers, and two tweeters), 'Renault Smartkey' keyless entry and start, auto headlights, and rain-sensing wipers.

Plus, you also get rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, the 7.0-inch 'R-Link' multimedia system (with 'Text to Speech' function), one-touch driver's window (the base Life grade misses this), a leather-trimmed steering wheel and gear knob plus black and grey cloth trim (with snazzy contrast stitching).

The DRLs may be LED but the headlights are halogen (a sure sign of this car's age), Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are MIA, and metallic paint, as per 'our' car's 'Zircon Blue' finish is $550 extra. 'Glacier White' is the only no-cost option from six available shades.

The Leaf is driven by a 350V electric motor on the front axle, providing a max output of 110kW/320Nm. Being an electric motor, the torque is available almost instantaneously.

Despite its almost-1600kg kerb weight (batteries are heavy!) Nissan claims those motor specs will have the Leaf doing 0-100km/h in just 7.9 seconds.

It’s not the most powerful electric motor, even among a limited pool of competitors, but it still outshoots its main competitor, the Hyundai Ioniq EV (88kW/295Nm).

The Zoe is powered by Renault's R90 synchronous electric motor, producing 68kW from 3000-5000rpm and 225Nm from step-off. Drive goes to the front wheels through a single reduction gear auto transmission.

Claimed acceleration for the city-specific 0-50km/h run is a handy 4.0sec, with the more grown-up 0-100km/h sprint taking a leisurely 13.2sec. Flat biscuit is 135km/h.

The Leaf consumes no petrol for obvious reasons, and how much it will cost you to charge for a year will depend where you get your electricity from.

If you have solar panels or you can steal your electricity from a wall socket at work, for example, it can cost you next to nothing. If you exclusively charge up at home, Nissan reckons it will cost you just north of $700 a year to charge the Leaf at peak times, or just over $300 at non-peak times.

The other thing you’ll need to know are the types of connectors available to you. The Leaf has two. It has a Type-2 ‘Mennekes’ connector - one of the most popular types of connector globally - and a two-prong CHAdeMO port, a Japanese standard, which is capable of higher kW inputs.

How fast you’ll charge will depend on the kW output of the station you connect to. A 50kW output via the CHAdeMO connector will see a charge time from zero to 80 per cent in about an hour, while a Type 2 home wall connector has a charge time Nissan estimates at 7.5 hours, and connecting to a good old-fashioned three-pin wall outlet will see a charge time of “about 24 hours.”

How efficient the Leaf is once the energy is actually in the battery is another question. Electric cars are measured in efficiency by kWh/100km. I can’t comment on what the Leaf got at the launch as the short distance would be an unfair reflection, but on my earlier range-test I scored around 15.3kWh/100km. For context, I found the Kona Electric to be slightly more efficient at 14.1kWh/100km (hence the less than 10 score for the Leaf).

To be fair, the Kona’s extra weight probably helps regain more energy around town.

None. Next question...

You can have the argument about fuel consumed and source emissions produced in generating the energy required to charge the Zoe's battery, but the fact is this car doesn't consume any fossil fuel and produces zero tailpipe emissions. Helped by the fact it doesn't have a tailpipe.

When launched in 2016, the Zoe's upgraded 41kWh 'Z.E. 40' high-energy lithium-ion battery ranked as the highest energy density automotive unit available.

Developed in collaboration with LG Chem in South Korea, it houses 12 modules (of 16 cells each) for a total of 912 individual cells and weighs in at 305kg.

Renault lists a driving range of 403km for the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), with a real-world number of 300km a more realistic estimate. And that's almost exactly the range we achieved over a mix of city, suburban and freeway running in seven days with the car. Using overnight electricity rates, a full charge should average less than $8.00.

The Zoe's on-board 'Chameleon' charger allows it to be charged using different power levels (single or three-phase) through the same socket, from 3kW up to 22kW. A Type 2 charging cable (6.5m) for wall box and public charging points (in a natty canvas Z.E. bag) is included with the car.

According to Renault, a wall-box charger (not included with the car) is typically $1600 to $2000 for a residential installation and a mid-range 11kW unit will allow you to charge up in around four hours. High-powered 'Fast' and even juicier 'Rapid' charging points would reduce that time appreciably.

The dash indicator displays charge level and remaining range calculated over the last 200km of driving. A reset function can drop that to an average of the last 30km.

We'll touch on it further in the Driving section but regenerative braking, low-rolling resistance tyres, and 'Eco' mode (reducing air-con load and motor output) are big contributors to maximum range.

And while cabin cooling comes courtesy of a conventional a/c unit, heating is far more exotic. The Zoe's 'Heat Pump' system traps calories in the ambient air outside the car, with a pump compressing and heating them, then directing the heated air into the car, with no impact on range. Super clever.

Like almost all electric cars, the Leaf is slick to drive, but it will be a little different from what you are used to.

Much of this is down to regenerative braking which fundamentally changes the way you interact with this car’s pedals.

Nissan has an 'on' or 'off' regen braking system, dubbed e-Pedal. This essentially uses aggressive regenerative braking to allow you to drive the car with the accelerator pedal alone. Let your foot completely off the pedal, and the car will roll to a halt fairly quickly.

It’s an off-putting feeling at first, but it’s also what makes this car kind of fun to drive. It becomes a bit of a game rolling around town trying to re-gain energy anywhere you can. It’s this feature and ones like it that make electric vehicles get significantly higher milage, and thus improved range around town.

Every opportunity to stop at the lights, drive down a hill or gradually roll to a halt in traffic is an opportunity to regain energy.

If it’s simply too unsettling for you, you can entirely switch e-Pedal off, which means you’ll only regenerate energy when manually braking or when cruising from the motion of the wheels alone. It’s more like a traditional car to drive this way, but you might be surprised how much range you’ll lose by doing this.

I’d argue Hyundai’s execution of regen braking is a little more flexible, giving you control over three different levels of braking and also providing a little more feedback on energy recovery.

Outside of that, with 320Nm on tap, the Leaf does feel powerful. You’ll cringe to use it, knowing how much energy your draining, but when it’s time to go, the Leaf delivers.

It’s not quite thumping though, it seems as though the traction control, via some software wizardry, smooths out the acceleration experience. The power is there, but the car won’t let you spin the wheels and it smooths the instantaneous torque out as you accelerate.

Also like most electric cars, the extra weight of the battery under the floor makes for a very low centre of gravity. This lends the Leaf excellent handling in the corners, and the steering is weighted about right for a hatch this size. The Leaf’s suspension is on the softer side, but not unreasonably so. It deals with the extra weight well.

It’s also relatively quiet, especially at commuting speeds, with tyre roar alone starting to infiltrate the cabin at velocities north of 80km/h.

It’s a slick, if not totally inspiring drive, but it does make the entire concept of energy recovery just a little bit addictive.

Some believe cars have a soul, but the Renault Zoe expresses its feelings with a distinctive accent, the car's 'Z.E. Voice' function giving an audible warning to pedestrians up to 30km/h (when wind and tyre noise take over).

The whirring hum sounds like The Beach Boys warming up the theremin for a rendition of 'Good Vibrations'. Spooky and fun in equal measure.

Like all electric cars the Renault Zoe accelerates quickly from rest, thanks to the motor's ability to deliver maximum torque (225kW) from step off.

At 1480kg (battery 305kg) the Zoe is 177kg lighter than an equivalent Clio, so it's snappy in its natural city habitat, but thrust begins to taper off markedly around the 55-60km/h mark.

The single-speed, reduction gear automatic transmission combines with the motor's sewing-machine smoothness to provide close to perfect drive delivery.

Sitting on the same 'B platform' as the Clio (and 20 other Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance models) the Zoe features a strut front, beam rear suspension set-up.

Ride comfort is surprisingly good for such a small hatch, and the battery's location under the floor sets up a centre of gravity 35mm lower than the Clio's, so despite a 59 per cent front/41 per cent rear weight distribution, the car feels well planted in corners.

...the dash graphic – a blue AA-style battery surrounded by rising rings of energy – is reminiscent of 'the machine man' animating in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

The standard 16-inch alloy wheels are shod with Michelin Energy E-V low-rolling-resistance tyres (195/55), which won't win you pole on a qualifying lap, but are commendably quiet.

There are three driving modes, with the dash graphics aligning to each – Eco (green), Neutral (blue), and Dynamic (violet).

But ECO mode should be reserved for hardcore environmental warriors only. Press the console-mounted button and power from the motor is reduced and air-con output is limited.

It may increase range by a claimed 10 per cent, but what price your sanity? This setting sucks out the car's will to live, and thankfully a second press of the button or pinning the throttle pedal to the floor sees full-strength service resumed. Phew.

The regenerative deceleration and braking system distributes braking force between the clamping of the brake pads and the engine on over-run to maximise battery charge.

While the BMW i3's regen system will have you head-butting the steering wheel (not really) when you get off the throttle, the Zoe's system is more subtle, and watching the dash graphic – a blue AA-style battery surrounded by rising rings of energy – is reminiscent of 'the machine man' animating in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Speaking of brakes, the fronts are relatively delicate 258mm vented discs and the 9.0-inch rear drums look like miniature versions of the elaborately fluted units found on 1920s Grand Prix racers. They're beautiful and work well.

Some niggles. The wipers skip and stutter in light rain, the lightweight doors feel clangy when you close them, and the R-Link multimedia system is annoyingly flaky when recognising content (or not) via Bluetooth or USB from a mobile device.

The Zoe hasn't been assessed by ANCAP but was awarded a maximum five-star ranking by EuroNCAP in 2013, with annual reviews allowing it to maintain that score through to April this year.

Active crash prevention tech includes ABS, EBD, EBA, ESC, traction control, tyre-pressure-loss sensors, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

But forget about more recent systems like AEB, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic alerts or adaptive cruise.

Interestingly, the Zoe continuously monitors the state of each cell in the battery pack and will switch off current immediately if it senses an overheating-style abnormality.

If an impact is unavoidable the airbag count runs to six - driver and passenger front, front side (head and thorax), and full-length side curtain.

There are three top tethers and two ISOFIX positions for child seats/baby capsules across the back row, and all seats feature Renault's 'Fix4Sure' anti-submarining design.

Nissan offers the Leaf with the brand’s standard five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty promise, alongside an eight-year, unlimited kilometre battery warranty. “We’ve found from the first-generation Leaf that the battery will outlast the car,” the brand’s EV director said at the launch. He also claimed the Leaf’s Lithium-ion battery pack is 98 per cent recyclable, if that’s a concern of yours.

The Leaf has a service interval of 12 months or 20,000km whichever occurs first, and service pricing is fixed for the life of the warranty.

It'll cost you betweem $237 and $343 per service, for an average yearly service cost of $346.20.

According to Renault, the R90 motor is "maintenance-free", waterproof and requires no lubrication, with servicing costs "20 per cent lower than an equivalent ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle."

Despite that, servicing is recommended every 12 months/30,000km for an estimated cost of $231 each time.

Warranty is three years/unlimited km with 24-hour roadside assist included for the first year, and three after that if you have your car serviced at an authorised Renault dealer.

The battery is covered by a separate five year/100,000km warranty.