The Nissan Leaf has received a light facelift for the European market. Unless you’re a dedicated Leaf fan you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference, but the updates actually make the frumpy-looking Leaf a bit more high-tech, which is necessary for an EV to stand out these days. It also means we’re likely to see the improved version on U.S. shores soon.
The freshened version wears a new grille — well, a sheet of material where a grille would be — that eschews chrome for a solid expanse of black. Gone is the blue square pattern from the old grille, replaced with molded hieroglyphic patterns on the edges. In fact, all traces of eco-blue highlights have been removed. Formerly, they resided on the front lip spoiler and the rear bumper graphic.
New Nissan hamburger badges adorn the front and rear, and the latter even illuminates. However, the pièce de résistance for this update is the new wheel design. The outgoing Leaf had three wheel options, a 16-inch steelie with hubcap, a 16-inch split-spoke alloy or an uninspiring 5-spoke 17-inch alloy that somehow looked even more basic than the 16-inch. Now, the Leaf comes with the option of a snazzy, 30-spoke wheel that looks like a circuit board or some kind of high-tech fan.
The Leaf will come with more colors as well, though it’s not clear whether these will make their way across the pond. Magnetic Blue is borrowed from the Qashqai, and something called Universal Blue from the Ariya (this name doesn’t appear on the U.S. Ariya’s impressive palette, but it’s likely Pearl Blue).
The made-over Leaf goes on sale in April in Europe. While it’s still not a stunner, it’s surprising what a few minimal tweaks can do for a formerly plain-Jane design.
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