2022 Nissan Leaf

The volume LEAF S runs the 110-kW EM57 motor rated 147 hp; the 62-kWh PLUS grades step to a 160-kW unit at 214 hp. Both sit near the bottom of the 130–520 hp hatchback band, and 2022 is a carry-over year for both powertrains.

Torque is the LEAF's better number than horsepower — 236 lb-ft available from a standstill beats every gas compact hatchback in the segment, which is why the car feels quicker around town than 147 hp suggests.

Nissan quotes no 0–60 figure for 2022. Instrumented tests of the 147-hp/40-kWh car — unchanged for 2022, whose updates were equipment and pricing only — bracket 7.4 s (U.S. News test track) to 7.8 s (Edmunds), squarely mid-pack for a compact hatchback.

Single-motor EV delivery is instant, near-silent and free of lag or shift shock, and standard e-Pedal one-pedal driving is well calibrated across all five grades. Held back from the top band because the 147-hp S runs out of thrust above roughly 50 mph and the front-drive layout tugs at the wheel under hard acceleration.

A single-speed gear reducer — there are no shifts to mistime, no hunting and no CVT drone. Three drive modes (Normal, Eco, B-Mode) plus e-Pedal give the driver real control over regen. Short of the top only because regen is not paddle-adjustable as on newer EVs.

Front-wheel drive is the only configuration offered on any 2022 LEAF, at any price — there is no AWD option on S, SV, S PLUS, SV PLUS or SL PLUS. Bottom of the band alongside other FWD-only hatchbacks.

2022 offers two distinct electric configurations — 40 kWh/147 hp (S, SV) and 62 kWh/214 hp (S PLUS, SV PLUS, SL PLUS) — across five grades, a wider spread than the two-grade lineup the LEAF was cut to for 2023. But they remain two states of one electric powertrain: no gas, hybrid or AWD alternative exists.

The volume 40-kWh LEAF is EPA-rated 111 MPGe combined — a competitive efficiency figure for its era, graded here against other EVs rather than the gas fleet. The heavier 62-kWh PLUS grades give back 3–7 MPGe.

City is the LEAF's best case — regenerative braking and standard e-Pedal recover most of the energy of stop-and-go driving, which is the commute the car was engineered around.

Highway MPGe falls about 20% from the city figure — the usual EV pattern, and the LEAF's tall hatchback body gives back more at speed than a slipperier EV would despite a claimed 0.28 coefficient of drag.

149 miles is the hardest fact about the volume LEAF — below the floor of the EV range band, and even the top 226-mile S PLUS does not clear it. By 2022 the LEAF's passively air-cooled pack was a generation behind rivals on range, which is what the next generation's 75-kWh pack set out to fix.

2022 is the year the CHAdeMO quick-charge port became standard across all five grades rather than a package option — a real improvement — but the 40-kWh car's port is the 50-kW unit, below the 70-kW floor of the band, and on a connector standard US public networks were already retiring in favour of CCS.

The small 40-kWh pack partly masks the slow 50-kW port — 40 minutes to 80% is poor by 2022 standards but still quicker than the 45 minutes the larger PLUS pack needs. The passively air-cooled battery also throttles hard on repeated fast charges, so this figure flatters a road trip.

Energy cost is where the LEAF wins outright — roughly a third of what a comparable gas compact burns over the same 15,000 miles, and the cheapest single thing about running one.

Electricity is cheap and 2022 made the charge hardware standard on every grade — quick-charge port plus a portable cable — so an owner with a 240V outlet is well served without installing a wallbox. It gets awkward away from home: the 6.6-kW onboard charger needs about 7.5 hours at 220V for the 40-kWh pack, and DC fast charging is CHAdeMO, a standard US networks were already abandoning, which turns public charging into a planning exercise.

NHTSA rated both 2022 battery variants as separate entries and awarded each the maximum overall Vehicle Score, built on a clean sweep of 5-star side results against 4 stars frontal and 4 stars rollover. The heavy, low-mounted floor battery does exactly what it should in the side and rollover tests.

2022 is the year IIHS actually put a LEAF through the tougher updated side test, and the car came back Acceptable rather than Good. The rest of the published picture is solid — Good moderate overlap front, Good original side, Good head restraints — but the ZE1 LEAF carries no Top Safety Pick award and has never been published with a small overlap front or roof strength result in the US, so roughly a third of the crashworthiness picture is simply absent. Mid-band per the prompt: mostly Good with an Acceptable, no award.

Nissan Safety Shield 360 is standard on all five 2022 grades and its content is genuinely broad for a base car — AEB with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, rear automatic braking, lane departure warning with prevention and high beam assist. What keeps it out of the top band is the other half of the band's definition: the volume LEAF S has no adaptive cruise and no lane centering, so the base car is missing two of the five features the 80-100 band names.

AEB with pedestrian detection is standard on every 2022 grade, but no independent body has ever measured how well it works: IIHS logs the system as present and explicitly not tested, and NHTSA's 2022 record credits only forward collision warning with no crash-imminent-braking or pedestrian AEB verification. Standard hardware with zero published performance evidence belongs mid-band, not at the top.

This is the LEAF's clearest safety advantage over its gas rivals: radar blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert are standard on the $27,400 base grade, and rear automatic braking adds a real intervention layer behind the car rather than another chime. It stops short of the top band because the blind spot function is alert-only — no LEAF at any 2022 price offers steering-based blind spot intervention.

The volume LEAF S gets Lane Departure Warning plus Intelligent Lane Intervention, which nudges the car back with brake-based correction — real prevention, which is how IIHS records it, but a corrective twitch at the marking rather than continuous centering. Actual lane centering needs ProPILOT Assist's steering assist, and for 2022 that means walking two grades to the $36,425 SV PLUS.

The volume LEAF S has conventional fixed-speed cruise control and nothing more — no radar following, no stop-and-go — which is the prompt's 0-49 'basic cruise only' case. It scores at the top of that band rather than the bottom because 2022's five-grade ladder makes the fix unusually cheap: radar Intelligent Cruise Control arrives on the $28,800 SV, a $1,400 step, where the two-grade 2023 lineup would demand roughly $8,000 for the same capability.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on the 2022 LEAF at any grade or price. ProPILOT Assist is a hands-on-wheel system throughout, and Nissan's hands-off ProPILOT Assist 2.0 was never fitted to the US LEAF.

The volume LEAF S runs halogen projectors with automatic on/off; LED headlamps and LED signature DRLs became standard equipment on the SV PLUS for 2022 rather than a package option, which helps an upmarket buyer but not the volume one. High Beam Assist is at least standard fleet-wide, but IIHS has never published a headlight rating for any US ZE1 LEAF, so there is no verified performance to credit and the as-delivered volume car is on the lighting technology IIHS has essentially never rated Good.

The ZE1 LEAF keeps a conventional upright hatchback greenhouse — a low cowl, generous glass and a usefully square rear window — so the forward and side view beats the raked-fastback EVs that followed. The thick rear roof pillar pinches the over-shoulder view, and the 360-degree Intelligent Around View Monitor that would compensate does not reach the volume S even after 2022 made it standard on the SV PLUS, leaving the base car with a plain reversing camera.

IIHS rates the LEAF's child-seat anchor hardware Marginal — a measured verdict on a tested car, not an inference — and nothing in the 2022 equipment changes touched it. Only the two outboard positions have complete LATCH hardware, the lower anchors sit too deep in the seat bight, and the centre position has a tether anchor but no lower anchors at all. The bench itself is a reasonable size for a compact hatch thanks to the flat EV floor; the anchors are the problem the rating is describing.

The ZE1 LEAF is a conventional five-seat, five-door hatchback and every 2022 grade seats five, putting it at the top of the 4–5 hatchback band.

41.2 inches is exceptional for a compact hatchback — above the top of the 36–40 in band — a product of the LEAF's tall, upright greenhouse and the high hip point the floor-mounted battery forces. No 2022 trim offers a sunroof at any price.

42.1 inches sits mid-band for the segment — enough for tall drivers on paper — but the raised battery floor means those inches are taken with knees carried higher than in a gas compact, which reviewers read as a knees-up posture rather than a shortage of room.

37.3 inches is mid-band and respectable on paper, but the roofline tapers hard toward the tailgate and the practical complaint is the entry aperture — passengers much over six feet duck to clear the header getting in.

33.5 inches is the LEAF's worst interior number and the clearest cost of packaging a 2011-era battery layout under a 106.3-inch wheelbase: it lands near the bottom of the 32–42 in hatchback band, well behind a Civic Hatchback or Mazda3. A raised hump in the rear footwell, unusual among EVs, makes the middle seat worse still.

23.6 cubic feet behind the second row is a strong figure for the segment and the practical half of the LEAF's case — a deep hatch well that takes a stroller or a large grocery run without folding anything. The catch is the other end: folding the bench adds only 6.4 cu ft and the seats do not fold flat.

Storage is conventional and unambitious: two console cupholders, four door bottle holders, a covered console bin, a glovebox and seatback pockets. There is no frunk, no underfloor bin, no household outlet and no vehicle-to-load power on the US car, and the rear bench's non-flat fold plus the rear-footwell hump undercut the flexibility the hatchback body should deliver. Nissan sells a rear cupholder-and-stash-tray accessory precisely because the second row has none.

Reviewers of the 2022 car describe the front seats as well-shaped and supportive with a decent level of give rather than the flat benches the LEAF used to get criticised for, and 2022 pushed the 8-way power driver's seat with 2-way lumbar down to the SV PLUS as standard equipment. The volume S still makes do with a 6-way manual seat and no lumbar adjustment, and the rear bench is the real limit — low, short-cushioned and knees-up for adults.

The low-slung floor battery and roughly 3,500 lb of curb weight give the LEAF a settled gait that flatters broken pavement for a car this small — 2022 reviewers put it in the Goldilocks zone between rigid and buoyant and credit it with swallowing large and small bumps alike. Sharp transverse ridges still register through the torsion-beam rear axle, and a persistent low-speed jiggle keeps it short of plush.

With no engine the LEAF is conspicuously quiet at town speeds and under acceleration, and reviewers note the absence of the driveline commotion a gas compact makes changing gears. At highway speed the advantage narrows — a mainstream-priced hatchback body with ordinary glass lets wind and coarse-surface road noise through with no powertrain sound to mask it.

2022's five-trim lineup puts the cold-weather kit an EV owner actually feels within reach: heated front seats, a heated leather-wrapped steering wheel, heated mirrors, a heat-pump cabin heater and NissanConnect EV remote preconditioning are all standard from the $28,800 SV upward — three of five grades, and only $1,400 above the base car. The volume S and the S PLUS get none of it, there are no rear vents on any grade, and no LEAF offers ventilated seats or rear climate control.

2022 is the year Nissan cut LEAF pricing hard — the S dropped from $31,670 to $27,400, roughly $4,300, making it the cheapest new EV on sale in the United States. Destination was $1,025.

The 62-kWh SV PLUS is the representative configuration: it carries the long-range pack and, new for 2022, ProPILOT Assist and Intelligent Around View Monitor as standard rather than as a Technology Package. $35,400 plus $1,025 destination is $36,425 delivered, down about $2,800 from the 2021 equivalent.

An EV drivetrain deletes oil changes, plugs, belts and most brake wear, so the LEAF is among the cheapest cars in the compact-hatch class to service, and the ZE1 platform had been in production since 2018 with a mature parts supply. The figure sits slightly above the 2023 and 2025 cars because the 2022 LEAF is the last model year with no factory-paid scheduled maintenance — EV Carefree+ arrived with MY2023.

This is the worst-case LEAF residual year. The air-cooled pack with no thermal management, the CHAdeMO port the public network was already abandoning, and the full $7,500 federal credit — which resets the used market to the post-credit price rather than MSRP — combine to gut resale. Four-year data is now real rather than modeled and tracks to roughly 31% at the five-year mark.

Nissan's standard new-vehicle limited warranty is the industry-baseline 36 months / 36,000 miles, unchanged for 2022 and sitting at the floor of the segment band. Hyundai and Kia covered directly comparable cars for 5 years / 60,000 miles.

The pack is the coverage that matters on an EV, and Nissan's is the federal-minimum 8 years / 100,000 miles with an explicit capacity floor — a real guarantee rather than defect-only cover, which matters more on the LEAF than on rivals given its passively cooled battery. The electric drive unit itself gets the shorter 5 years / 60,000 miles.

2022 is the last LEAF model year with no factory-paid scheduled maintenance — Nissan EV Carefree+, which bundles three years / 36,000 miles of free service, was announced at the LA Auto Show in November 2022 and began with MY2023, after most 2022 cars were sold. What the 2022 buyer got was the standard 3-year / 36,000-mile roadside assistance plus a genuinely useful $250 EVgo charging credit under Nissan Energy Perks — larger, in fact, than the $100 credit EV Carefree+ later offered. That is 'basic roadside plus a real perk, no included maintenance', which lands mid-band.

$36,425 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (31% retained, or about $11,292) leaves about $25,133 in depreciation. Add the projected $3,500 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $28,633 in total.

Average predicted reliability — a mechanically simple EV drivetrain in the fifth year of a carry-over generation, held back by the passively air-cooled battery that dominates owner complaints and that has since drawn a fire-risk recall specific to 2021–2022 cars. Well below the Corolla/Civic/Mazda3 hatchbacks in the segment, well above the Fiat 500e.

Nissan sat in the lower-middle of the industry on multi-year dependability when the 2022 cars were sold — mid-pack rather than bottom-third, and before the step up it posted in the 2023 J.D. Power dependability study.

Four NHTSA campaigns reach the 2022 model year, and unlike 2023 one of them is a traction-battery fire risk carrying a use restriction: owners are told not to DC fast charge until the software remedy is applied — on a model year where Nissan had just made the quick-charge port standard equipment. Combined with a generation-wide unintended-acceleration defect and an FMVSS 111 rearview-camera noncompliance, this is heavier than typical recall activity for the segment.

Split verdict, and 2022 sits on the wrong side of the split. The EM57 motor, inverter and single-speed reduction gear are among the most proven EV hardware on the road after a decade and half a million cars, with very few failures. The battery is the weakness: the ZE1 pack is still passively air-cooled with no active thermal management, and the 2021–2022 build is the one NHTSA campaign 25V655000 names for overheating during fast charging — a step behind the liquid-cooled 2026 redesign.

A 2018-vintage cabin untouched in 2022 — the year's changes were price and standard equipment, not trim — with hard plastics across most surfaces and gloss black on the high-touch panels. Acceptable at a $27,400 base price, and helped by uniform textures, but clearly behind the Mazda3 and Civic hatchbacks that set the segment's material benchmark.

Solid rather than notable. Four years into the generation the assembly is sorted, reviewers and owners describe the cabin as well put together and uniformly finished, and there is no pattern of rattle or misalignment complaints — but nothing here is a selling point, and the brand's initial-quality standing is respectable rather than strong.

A dense nationwide Nissan network with adequate but unremarkable measured service satisfaction in the 2022 timeframe — the brand's later CSI wins had not happened yet — discounted for the EV caveat: high-voltage battery work needs a certified technician and not every store has one, so LEAF-specific service is concentrated in a subset of the network.

Routine running costs are very low — no oil service and regen-extended brake life — and after a decade and 165,000 US sales the LEAF has the deepest conventional-parts and salvage-pack ecosystem of any EV bar Tesla, including third-party pack specialists. Marked down for the out-of-warranty battery, which costs a large fraction of the car's value, and for the CHAdeMO fast-charge port that 2022 made standard on every trim and that is now an orphaned standard with shrinking US public coverage.

Eight inches is the whole ladder: Nissan made the 8-inch display standard across all five 2022 trims, which was an improvement for base buyers, but nothing above it exists. By 2022 that sits at the bottom of the 7–15.5 in hatchback band while rivals were shipping 10–12 inches on mid trims.

NissanConnect here is dated but honest — a simple tile menu with real volume and tuning knobs and physical climate controls beneath it, which keeps everyday tasks off the screen entirely. Response is adequate rather than quick and the graphics are visibly a generation behind the 2022 field, but nothing about it is confusing.

Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on the cheapest $27,400 LEAF S, which is the right side of the line — but both are wired only, and no 2022 trim, package or accessory adds wireless projection. Squarely the 'wired standard, wireless nowhere' case.

Nissan Door to Door Navigation comes standard from the $28,800 SV upward — three of five 2022 grades, and cheaper to reach than in later years — but the volume S and the S PLUS have no built-in navigation at all, which matters more in an EV whose head unit then cannot plan a charging stop. Voice is limited to Siri Eyes Free pass-through and a hands-free text assistant; there is no native natural-language assistant.

2022 is the last LEAF model year with a genuine premium audio option — the SL PLUS carries a 7-speaker Energy Efficient Series Bose system, custom-tuned for the cabin, which the 2023 trim cull deleted entirely. The base end is still thin: four speakers in a five-seat car on the S and S PLUS, stepping only to six on the SV grades.

Every 2022 LEAF gets the 7-inch colour TFT display in the gauge binnacle as standard from the base trim — genuinely useful in an EV for state of charge, power flow, battery temperature and range, and it carries ProPILOT Assist status where fitted. It is a partial cluster, though, paired with a fixed dial rather than a reconfigurable full-width panel.

The ZE1 LEAF has no meaningful over-the-air update path — no vehicle-software OTA, and map updates on the navigation-equipped grades are a dealer or USB affair rather than a push. On the volume S, which has neither navigation nor telematics hardware, there is nothing to update remotely at all.

NissanConnect EV telematics — remote charge start, state-of-charge monitoring, remote cabin heating and cooling — is standard from the $28,800 SV upward, so three of five 2022 grades have a working companion app and the step up from the base car is only $1,400. The volume S and S PLUS have none of it: those owners set a charge timer and an HVAC timer in the car and cannot see or change either from a phone. No digital key on any grade.

Four device ports standard — three USB-A plus one USB-C — is a fair count for a car at this price and at least acknowledges USB-C exists. Everything above that is missing: no wireless phone charging on any 2022 grade, a single 12-volt outlet, no household AC outlet and no vehicle-to-load power despite the car being an EV.

Nissan Intelligent Key with push-button start and a remote charge-port release is standard on the base trim, which covers the daily basics properly, and 2022 added HomeLink as standard on SV PLUS and SL PLUS rather than an option. Above that it thins out — no phone-as-key, no hands-free tailgate, and no app-based remote functions on the S because it has no telematics.

2022 is the year Nissan made the Intelligent Around View Monitor standard equipment on the SV PLUS rather than a package extra — one of the better 360-degree systems in the mainstream market, now on a mid-range trim and optional on the SV. The volume S and the S PLUS still get a plain RearView Monitor with no parking sonar of any kind, and no LEAF offers automated parking.

No head-up display is offered on the 2022 LEAF at any trim, in any package, at any price.

The basics are right — five seats, four conventional doors that open wide on an upright body, a 60/40 folding bench, standard Rear Door Alert, and 23.6 cu ft of hatch well that takes a stroller without folding anything. Two things hold it back: IIHS rates the LEAF's LATCH hardware Marginal, and at 33.5 inches of rear legroom a rear-facing seat pushes the front passenger well forward. The second row also has no cupholders unless the owner buys the $95 accessory tray.

Strong for the money on the trim families actually buy: NHTSA five stars overall for both battery variants, and Nissan Safety Shield 360 standard on the $27,400 S — AEB with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning and intervention, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning with Intelligent Lane Intervention, rear automatic braking and high beam assist — plus Rear Door Alert and rear seat-mounted side airbags. The gaps are real: IIHS returned only Acceptable on the updated side test, LATCH is Marginal, the S runs halogen headlights, and adaptive cruise does not appear below the SV.

Loaded with four and luggage, the volume S's 149-mile EPA range is roughly two hours of highway before a 40-minute stop on a shrinking CHAdeMO network — the single fact that decides this item. The 62-kWh grades soften it considerably (226 miles on the S PLUS is the longest-range LEAF ever sold in the US), but the cabin does not help either way: no rear air vents on any grade, no rear amenities beyond USB ports, and 33.5 inches of rear legroom.

This is what the LEAF was built for and it is genuinely excellent at it: silent, lag-free single-speed delivery with 236 lb-ft from a standstill, and standard e-Pedal one-pedal driving that covers most of stop-and-go traffic with the throttle alone. Light steering, a high seating position and a 34.8-foot turning circle finish the job. The only daily annoyance is that the S and SV grades on the 40-kWh pack get fixed-speed cruise control rather than radar.

Roughly $700 a year in electricity at EPA assumptions is about a third of what a comparable gas compact burns over the same 15,000 miles, and an EV drivetrain strips out oil changes, plugs and most brake wear on top of that. For a commute inside the car's range this is close to the cheapest per-mile proposition on sale. It falls just short of the later LEAF years because 2022 is the last model year with no factory-paid scheduled maintenance — Nissan EV Carefree+ arrived for 2023.

176.4 inches long on a 106.3-inch wheelbase with a 34.8-foot curb-to-curb circle on the 16-inch wheels makes the LEAF easy to place in a city, and the upright glasshouse gives better over-shoulder sightlines than most modern hatchbacks. 2022 also improved the camera story by making the Intelligent Around View Monitor standard on the SV PLUS — but the volume S still has a plain rear view monitor and no parking sensors at all.

Nissan publishes no towing rating for the US LEAF and offers no factory hitch on any 2022 grade, so towing is off the table entirely. What is left is a front-drive compact hatchback with a 23.6 cu ft carpeted cargo well — fine for samples and a laptop bag, not a work tool.

The ZE1 platform had five model years behind it by 2022 and the drivetrain itself is simple, but the LEAF's defining durability weakness is squarely a work-duty one: the pack is passively air-cooled, so repeated DC fast charging and sustained hard use accelerate capacity loss in a way liquid-cooled rivals do not suffer. No fleet or commercial reputation, and no wear-friendly interior option — the seats are Bio Suede PET or leather, neither meant for abuse.

Almost nothing here. One 12-volt outlet, no household AC outlet and — despite the car being an EV — no vehicle-to-load power approved for the US market. No hitch, no roof rails, no upfit ecosystem; the cargo-related catalogue runs to a removable cover, a cargo organiser and a floor mat.

The worst use case for this car, and not marginally. 149 EPA miles in the volume S is well under the floor for road-tripping; the 50 kW CHAdeMO port needs about 40 minutes for 80% and plugs into a network that was already being decommissioned by 2022; and the air-cooled pack throttles charge rate on consecutive stops. 2022 earns a little back over later years because the 226-mile S PLUS existed at $32,400 and ProPILOT Assist became standard on the SV PLUS, which does lighten a long highway stint.

Front-wheel drive only at any price — there is no AWD on any of the five 2022 grades — with 5.9 inches of ground clearance, low-rolling-resistance all-season tyres, no published tow or roof load rating and no onboard power for camping. It is a pavement car and Nissan makes no claim otherwise.

The hatchback shape earns this back partway: a deep 23.6 cu ft well behind a wide tailgate takes bulky items easily, and the 60/40 bench splits for long loads. But maximum volume is only 30.0 cu ft — an unusually small gain from folding — the seats do not fold flat, and there is no frunk, underfloor bin, roof rail or hitch to extend the car past its own tailgate.

The floor-mounted battery drops the centre of gravity and the LEAF corners flatter and more securely than its soft-hatchback looks suggest. It is not agile, though — roughly 3,500 lb on low-rolling-resistance tyres with a torsion-beam rear axle sets the ceiling, and 2022 reviewers land on 'handles at an acceptable level' with less agility than its competition rather than anything enthusiastic.

The vehicle-speed-sensitive electric rack is accurate off-centre and light enough to make parking easy, but feedback is where 2022 reviewers draw blood — the lack of steering feel is named outright as the car's Achilles heel. Clean and predictable, but a numb system rather than a communicative one.

The regen-to-friction handoff is one of the better ones in the class — Nissan's cooperative regenerative braking with an electrically-driven intelligent brake blends without the hiccups that trip up cheaper calibrations, and e-Pedal scrubs speed predictably enough to cover most of city driving. Outright stopping power is only adequate: eco tyres and 3,500 lb work against the panic stop, and the pedal softens toward the end of its travel.

A single motor through a single-speed reducer with maximum torque from zero rpm — nothing to shift, nothing to stop and start, no torque converter to shunt. Tip-in is calibrated cleanly and e-Pedal's regen ramp is progressive rather than grabby. The only caveat is that the 147-hp 40-kWh car thins out above about 50 mph, which the 214-hp PLUS grades fix.

There is no engine, no idle shake, no drone under load and no gearchange — just a faint motor whine under hard acceleration and the low-speed pedestrian alert tone outside the car. Reviewers of the 2022 LEAF lead with exactly this: the electric drive makes no noise and lacks the commotion a gas car makes changing gears.

34.8 feet on the volume grade is near the tight end of the hatchback band and a genuine everyday strength — narrow streets, parking structures and U-turns are all easy. The wider 17-inch wheels on the SV and above cost 1.3 feet of it.

Good sightlines from a high hip point and an upright windscreen, with manual tilt and telescopic wheel adjustment standard on every grade, so most drivers can find a position — and 2022 made the 8-way power driver's seat with 2-way lumbar standard on the SV PLUS rather than a package extra. It stays short of excellent: the volume S has a 6-way manual seat with no lumbar adjustment, the raised floor leaves taller drivers knees-up, and the round shift-by-wire puck takes acclimatisation.

The instant off-the-line shove is briefly entertaining and e-Pedal makes town driving more involving than a normal automatic, but there is nothing beyond that — 147 hp that fades past 50 mph in the volume car, eco tyres, numb steering and no drive-mode character or sound. Nissan explicitly tuned it for smooth comfort rather than enthusiasts, and reviewers say so.

2022 is the year Nissan moved content down the range rather than up the price. The CHAdeMO quick-charge port and a portable 240-volt charging cable became standard on every grade — the base S previously went without a fast-charge port at all — and eight items from the SV PLUS Technology Package, ProPILOT Assist and Intelligent Around View Monitor among them, became standard on that trim. Safety Shield 360 and an 8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto were standard across the line. The deduction is that the 40-kWh S remains sparse on comfort content and the hardware itself was dated by 2022.

This is the LEAF's best value year of the whole ZE1 run, and it is not close. Nissan cut MSRP by roughly $4,300 while the nameplate was still well under the old 200,000-unit federal cap, so the full $7,500 credit remained available for the entire model year — the S landed near $20,900 effective and the volume SV PLUS near $28,900 for 215 miles of range, ProPILOT Assist, Around View Monitor and five-seat hatchback practicality. What holds it out of the top band is the hardware behind the price: a 50-kW CHAdeMO port on a connector the public network was already retiring, and a passively cooled pack with no thermal management, both of which rivals had moved past.

The widest lineup the LEAF ever offered in the US: five trims across two battery sizes — S and SV on the 40-kWh pack, S PLUS, SV PLUS and SL PLUS on the 62-kWh — spanning $28,425 to $38,425 delivered with sensible steps between them, and a buyer wanting long range on a budget could take the S PLUS rather than being forced up to a loaded car. Nissan cut this to two trims for 2023. It is still one body and front-wheel drive only, with no AWD ever offered and little standalone option flexibility, which caps it short of the top band.

US LEAF volume fell about 30% in calendar 2022, to roughly 10,000 units from 14,239 the year before, and the back half of the year was far weaker than the front — Q3 was the worst third quarter in the car's history. That decline came in a year when the overall US EV market grew sharply, so the LEAF was losing share as well as volume, squeezed by inventory constraints on one side and newer CCS-equipped rivals on the other. It still outsold the 2023 and 2025 cars comfortably, which is why it sits above them.

Nissan in 2022 sat squarely in the neutral band: mid-way through the Nissan NEXT turnaround with a genuinely well-received wave of new product (Rogue, Pathfinder, Frontier, Z) behind it, and none of the restructuring, credit downgrade or failed-merger news that would weigh on the badge by 2025. Set against that is a long association with incentive-heavy selling, CVT reliability reputation from the volume lineup, and the LEAF nameplate's own well-documented battery-degradation history, which is exactly the kind of thing that follows a car into the used market.

Scored on buyer benefit, and 2022 pulls hard in both directions. In the LEAF's favour: the full $7,500 federal credit was available on a purchase all model year, Nissan had already baked a ~$4,300 cut into MSRP rather than making buyers chase rebates, and the company ran episodic national lease blitzes — an $89/month advertised offer among them. Against it: this was the peak of the chip-shortage seller's market, with reports of LEAFs transacting $3,000–$4,000 over sticker, the headline lease deal was withdrawn within weeks, and dealer negotiability was close to nil. Net, a well-informed buyer could do genuinely well; a typical one often could not.

2022 is the fifth model year of the ZE1 generation launched for 2018, and the changes were pricing and content rather than hardware — no restyle (that came for 2023), no new battery, no charging-port change. The platform was visibly behind by then: rivals had moved to CCS, liquid-cooled packs and 300-mile range, and Nissan's own Ariya was arriving on the newer CMF-EV architecture, signalling where the company's EV effort had moved. Mid-cycle rather than obsolete, but clearly on the back half of it.

The price cut bought real goodwill: reviewers who had written the LEAF off on range rated the 2022 car well on value, and it placed third in both US News' and KBB's electric-car rankings for the year. But the verdicts were consistently qualified rather than enthusiastic — short range against a Model 3, Mach-E or Ioniq 5, dated styling, and a fast-charge port reviewers were already flagging as a liability — and it won no major award and no comparison test. Owner sentiment ran warmer than expert sentiment, as it usually does with this car.