Last fall, Nissan showed off their IDS concept of an autonomous EV. This wasn't supposed to be a look at the next-generation Leaf, but it had a 60-kWh battery pack. That felt like a pretty big hint at the time. The pack is double the size of the current Leaf, and would put it into a more competitive footing with Tesla. Of course, at the time Nissan wasn't talking.
This week at Electric Vehicle Symposium 29 in Montreal, Nissan's global director of EV engineering, Kazuo Yajima, told AutoblogGreen that the 60-kWh battery pack is a reality. "It's coming", he said. Nissan was at the show to show off their new pack, so they must be planning to put it somewhere, and the next Leaf is the logical place. The pack would boost the range of a new Leaf to over 320 km. Possibly more, depending on the test. The pack shows that Nissan is taking the competition from the Tesla Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt seriously. Yajima was very confident about Nissan's EV path, claiming "in the near future, I believe, we can produce an electric vehicle that doesn't have any driving range problem".
There is no date for the next Leaf, but expect it to arrive (or at least the bigger battery) around the time Model 3s start to arrive.
