Nissan announces 2026 Leaf pricing, starting at $29,990

There's a new Nissan Leaf coming later this year. The third of its kind to bear the name, it sounds like an appealing upgrade. Smaller than the current model on the outside but with more room inside, it's also more efficient and finally uses a liquid-cooled battery. But we knew all that back at the start of summer. What we didn't know then was how much the Leaf will cost.

As we noted back in June, pricing is most likely to determine the Leaf's success or failure. None of the improvements to this electric vehicle will matter if it's too expensive. Happily, that doesn't appear to be the case. The Leaf S+ is the base model, with a 75 kWh long-range battery and a range of 303 miles (487 km)—it will cost $29,990 when it goes on sale this fall.

That makes it cheaper than the original car when it first went on sale back in 2011, and that's before taking inflation into account. "We've stuck to our mission of engineering EVs that are affordable but packed with value. That's how we've kept the LEAF's price steady over three generations—all while giving owners more style, more technology, more features and a vastly improved driving range over the original 2011 model," said Nissan Senior Vice President of US Marketing and Sales Vinay Shahani.

The Leaf SV+ adds bigger wheels and a better infotainment system, and it can be fitted with an optional battery heater for those in cold climates. This trim will cost $34,230, which will make it almost $2,000 cheaper than the model-year 2025 Leaf SV+ despite the fact that the MY26 car has a range of 288 miles (463 km) versus just 212 miles (342 km) for the outgoing model.

The top trim is the Platinum+, which has an identical powertrain to the S+ and SV+, but with much more standard equipment. This version will start at $38,990.

Finally, there will be an even cheaper Leaf than the S+, called the S. We're unlikely to see the Leaf S here until next year at the earliest, and it will use a smaller 52 kWh battery pack than the S+/SV+/Platinum+. In June, we wrote that "the closer the S trim starts to $30,000, the better," despite the problems that tariffs will cause for this made-in-Japan EV. Now, it looks likely that the entry-level Leaf will undercut that target by some margin.