New Nissan Leaf could kill petrol cars with its 235-mile range and fast charging

That fact it manages 0-60mph in 7.9 seconds helps too

Nissan has announced the latest Leaf electric car model and it’s made a huge jump forward with a 40 percent increase in range, and plenty more besides.

The new Nissan Leaf can manage 235-miles on a single charge, beating the previous 155-mile range comfortably. This is now far enough to include long distance journeys. But if you want to go further there’s a special skill to help there too.

The new Leaf will charge from empty to 80 percent in just 40 minutes. So if you’re stopping for a coffee and some munchies mid family holiday trip, there should be just enough time for a toilet trip too. This, of course, is with quick chargers. At home the Leaf can manage a full charge on a 6kW charger in 8 hours or on a 3kW charger in 16 hours.

As if all that wasn’t cool enough, the Leaf packs some serious self-driving smarts too. ProPILOT offers autonomous single-lane driving meaning you don’t need to steer or touch the pedals at all. This also parks the car with complete control so the driver doesn’t need to press a thing. Then the e-Pedal allows you to accelerate, decelerate, stop and hold all with that one smart pedal.

Cleaner lines, sportier look

Nissan has also given the Leaf a sportier new look with cleaner lines and a new rear spoiler integrated into the window and diffuser bumper to reduce drag and enhance stability. There’s also still still that V-Motion grille and floating roof.

The new Leaf will be an upgrade on the current 24kw starter model - it'll be 40kWh - and will be available in white, yellow, red, light blue and new Spring Light Green plus a two-tone option.

The Nissan Leaf will be available on 2 October in Japan and will reach the rest of us by January 2018. 

Expect it to start at just north of £25,000 with the Government EV Grant - the current 30kWh Leaf Acenta is £25,790 with the grant. 

Now why not check out the best electric cars for a cheaper ride and a greener planet

Luke Edwards

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.