The Nissan Leaf: A Compromise in Electric Vehicles

As I sat behind the wheel of the Nissan Leaf, I couldn't help but feel that it was a car designed to appeal to people who are unsure about electric vehicles. The steering feels nicely connected, and there's a sense of mobility that's hard to ignore, particularly in the way the car pivots around your hip point. It's a feeling that's hard to put into words, but it's like you're going to say "this is a mobility solution" - and I think that's exactly what this car is meant to be.

In contrast, the Volkswagen ID3 takes a completely different approach with its skateboard chassis and rear-mounted engine. There's an idea behind this design, and it's one that I think is worth exploring further. But for now, let's take a closer look at the Leaf.

The Leaf's electric powertrain is designed to appeal to those who are unsure about switching to electric vehicles. It's based on the previous generation's platform, which means it has a familiar feel to it. And while that may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it's certainly a practical choice for those who want to make the switch without having to learn an entirely new system.

One of the things that strikes me about the Leaf is its packaging. With the engine and battery positioned in front of the car, there's a massive central transmission tunnel in the back that leaves limited space for passengers in the middle row. It's not just a matter of less legroom - it feels cramped in here, with the windscreen being narrower than you'd expect from an electric hatchback.

On the other hand, the ID3 takes a completely different approach to packaging. Its skateboard chassis and rear-mounted engine allow for a more conventional layout, which means there's plenty of space for passengers in all three rows. And while that may not be as exciting to look at as some of the more futuristic designs out there, it's certainly a practical choice for families who need a lot of space.

One area where the Leaf does win out is in terms of range and charging speed. It claims 239 miles on a single charge, which is plenty for most daily drives. And with a 100kWh battery, you can charge it at home overnight at a cost that's comparable to running a petrol engine.

But while the Leaf has its advantages, I couldn't help but feel that it misses out on some of the opportunities that come with being an electric vehicle. The ID3, on the other hand, feels like a car that truly takes advantage of what electric vehicles have to offer. It's not just about range and charging speed - it's about the unique possibilities that EVs bring.

As I drove the Leaf, I couldn't help but feel that it was a bit old-fashioned compared to the ID3. It's based on an existing platform, which means it doesn't have the packaging advantages that you'd expect from an electric car. And while that may not be the end of the world, it feels like a compromise.

But despite its limitations, the Leaf is still a very competitive electric vehicle. It's easy to live with, and it's certainly not as dull as some of the other options out there. But when it comes down to it, I think you'd rather be in the ID3 - if only because it feels like a car that truly takes advantage of what electric vehicles have to offer.

It's interesting to note that while both cars are good in their own right, they're not really drawing daylight between themselves and each other. They're both excellent choices for those looking at electric vehicles, but ultimately, it comes down to which one is the best fit for your needs. And as I sat behind the wheel of the Leaf, I couldn't help but feel that it's a car that straddles two worlds - it's not quite an EV, and it's not quite a traditional hatchback.

The ID3, on the other hand, feels like a car that truly belongs in both camps. It takes advantage of the unique possibilities that electric vehicles bring, while also offering a practical and comfortable driving experience. And as I drove around, I couldn't help but feel that this is a car that's going to change people's perceptions of what electric vehicles can do.

In the end, it's hard not to feel that the Leaf feels like it could be easier to live with if Nissan had taken a more radical approach to its design. By straddling two worlds and trying to appeal to both traditional petrolheads and those looking at electric vehicles, the Leaf feels like a car that's compromised.

But despite its limitations, the Leaf is still a very good car. It may not be as exciting to drive as some of the other options out there, but it's certainly practical and comfortable. And when you consider the costs of running an electric vehicle - with electricity being one of the cheapest forms of fuel around - the Leaf starts to look like a very attractive option.

Ultimately, though, I think you'd rather be in the ID3. It may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the more futuristic designs out there, but it feels like a car that truly takes advantage of what electric vehicles have to offer. And as I sat behind the wheel of the Leaf, I couldn't help but feel that this is a car that's meant for the roads - not just the showrooms and dealerships.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello you join me inside a volkswagen id3 for another no-nonsense sensible car review and twin test i'm in a volkswagen my colleague and friend james disdail is in a nissan leaf now normally we would do this sort of thing in the same car and have a chat about it but for covert related reasons we cannot be in the same car at the same time but trust me that we have both driven both of these vehicles and because we are consummate road testers true professionals some people have even described me i mean i would be too modest to say some people have even described me as the worst car reviewer on the internet thanks we have come to a conclusion which is broadly the same so james is going to describe the leaf i'm going to describe the id3 and we will conclude and we kind of both come to the same conclusion which is helpful so what is the id3 well it is volkswagen group's new all-electric platform in a family car sized electric vehicle it is about the length of volkswagen golf with 4.3 meters long it's a little bit wider a little bit taller quite a lot heavier there are various power options and various battery sizes this has a 201 horsepower electric motor at the rear axle driving the rear wheels only kind of like beetle so with that power output and with this battery fitted to this car comes in at around 36 000 pounds in the uk after the government grant which is really similar actually to the leaf given it's got a very similar battery very similar power level very similar range and is a very similar size these two are absolutely the rivals for each other and underneath the floor in this kind of skateboardy meb architecture as they call it is a 58 kilowatt hour that's 58 useful kilowatt hours of battery which is good enough for a wltp drive cycle range of 260 miles now i don't think you'll get that it's been a bit chilly the last couple of days i haven't had the car plugged in overnight i think you'll see a range of around 200 miles in that kind of form you get more than that if you were careful and if you started with a warm battery by having it charged overnight and so on now there have been evs before there have been electric volkswagens before james is in a leaf which has sold nearly half a million units since its launch but still i think and a bloke i saw charging in nissan leaf the other day thinks the same there is still quite a lot of hype and quite a lot of expectation this feels like quite a big moment that volkswagen has launched an electric car standalone brand it feels like the start of it feels like a a waypoint on the journey to evs that we are going through and there is something to be said for having a pure electric architecture this cabin is not like any other volkswagen it's really clean it's really crisply designed too much is on touchscreen some of the plastics are actually a little bit harder and scratchier than you might otherwise normally expect of a volkswagen but in terms of its ergonomics and its usability and the driving position things that feel familiar and comfortable about volkswagens are all present and correct there is one thing though right this car has got active lane assist and lay departure warning system to turn it off because it defaults to on and it just niggles every time you're not totally bang in the center of a lane and there are reasons on a country lane while you might not want to be in the central lane you know it might be that there's an upcoming gentle right hander and lorry's coming the other way you just actually will keep to the left of your lane a little bit the steering tries to tug you back the other way it just doesn't stop niggling me talking to you and trying to pull the wheel away from you all the time it is massively irritating and to turn it off i have to press assist on there then i have to press another menu button on there and then i have to press another menu button to actually turn it off and then i have to press the fourth button to go back to the screen that i wanted to in the first place volkswagen will tell you yeah the euro end cap and the you know regulations say has to be that way it doesn't have to be that way the regulations say it cannot be a momentary push of a single button so it could be a prolonged push and other manufacturers have confirmed to me or it could be a quick push of two buttons but it doesn't have to be that many it's so irritating and if it's that hard to turn it off well the chances are that when you get back on a motor anything i wouldn't mind that back on we're not going to turn it on again are you it's unbelievably irritating and if it annoys you don't buy this car run over what is the rest of the car like well as you may know from what you can hear in the background or car near the background refinement is strong this is a really quiet sound stupid i know this is a really quiet driving experience but because there is no engine noise you do notice wind noise and tire raw a little bit more and i think there may be a little bit more than both uh in here than in the leaf this car also feels a little bit firmer than the nissan if anything it feels like this platform is newer and more rigid as you go along the road although there is initial compliance to bumps i think by and large you get more of what a lot of engineers called head toss where the car moves ever so slightly from from side to side but on it i think it's comfortable enough this does ride on 19-inch wheels you probably wouldn't have to have wheels we don't have to have the wheels that big and it may be improved on smaller ones but there is a nice consistency to the controls a nice linearity to the throttle and to the brakes and to the steering which is fairly light self-centers the right sort of way it's it's uncorrupted by torque steer because of course the power goes to the back and not the front and as you corner keenly it retains a fairly flat body just sort of edges into a slight pushiness and in a way feels a bit like maybe a smart or a renault twingo in a quite endearing fashion not as engaging i don't think as some other regular hatchbacks are that are fun to drive by which i mean something like a ford focus which is fun all the time but then this is probably three 400 kilograms heavier than something like that so perhaps that's not surprising that it doesn't have that agility but it's good and i like it so there is decent room in the back there is decent enough room in the boot the boot is slightly bigger than a golf's slightly disappointingly you don't get any room in the front despite the fact that this is a skateboard architecture with the motor at the back basically the front seems to be full of inverter and power equipment which is a bit of a pity because if you're going to build a bespoke architecture why be beholden to some of the limitations of an internally combusted vehicle the lovely thing about tesla is you get a boot in the back you get another one in the front but it is good as james will be telling you though the leaf is also good so the nissan leaf now the nissan leaf you could arguably say this is the benchmark car in this class it wasn't the first electric car um it's arguably the best electric car but it was it was the one that beat the mainstream manufacturers to the punch it was the first family-sized hatchback electric car the one with a range at the time over 100 miles that seemed reasonable you know it it acted like a normal family car but it was electrically powered and it's been a huge success as a result so much so we're now on the second generation car this car here now immediately after any time in the id3 it feels like a a normal car it's much more familiar you could be in a nissan pulsar if that still exists or a qashqai even and the architecture beneath this car is more familiar as well so it is a bespoke ev platform but it's a development of the first nissan leaf platform so we've got an engine in the front front wheel drive batteries underneath that means it doesn't have necessarily the packaging advantages of the id3 it feels like a normal hatchback in here what you do notice after the id3 is the rolling refinement this car just feels quieter sounds quieter there's less road noise there's less wind noise less bump thump except over really nasty potholes it rides a bit more smoothly as well there's a bit more control to it you don't have that sort of head rock that you get in the id3 but it's a very relaxing car to drive you can see why it's so popular if all you want to do is get in the car put it in drive and go it's very good another really neat feature about the nissan leaf and something i really like and i don't know why volkswagen haven't done the same thing on the id3 is we've got the e-pedal device here so this is where you can literally go for maximum regenerative braking and the car slows proportionately as you lift off the throttle you get really strong braking effect and they call it one pedal driving and it genuinely is you can if you anticipate properly you can roll up to a junction lifting off the throttle all the time and come to a nice gradual stop and all the time you are harvesting energy to put back into the battery and that's really clever i like that that is good the rest of the car well it's both familiar like i say he's like a normal hatchback but at the same time it's not so the throttle response is really quite odd it's like i can imagine being the captain of a steam liner where you put your lever forward to full ahead and then someone shouts down the the pipe to the engine room it's not that there's a delay as such it just feels like there isn't a proportional response between what you ask for at the throttle it's got very very short throttle travel it just feels like you put your foot to the floor and it goes oh so you want to go quickly okay well i'll get you there quickly but i'll do it at my own time i'll i'll decide how much torque you should have how quickly you should get there and as a result it doesn't feel as fast as the figure suggests now this car has 214 brake horsepower and a quite healthy 251 pounds for the torque that's quite a lot nissan claim it will do the naughty 62 in about 6.6 seconds that's quick but it never really feels that quick and i don't know whether that's the refinement and obviously you've got the the linearity of the throttle of the power delivery but it is partly down to that really strange throttle response the rest of the car well it's it's okay i mean it's capable it's not very exciting and i know we're probably gonna get hammered on well you know you just don't like electric cars it's not an electric car thing because you can get into a one liter focus or you can get into a one liter golf and you can drive it and there are real there's real satisfaction to be had to it the steering feels nicely connected there's a feeling that the car's pivoting around your hip point particularly in the the focus and this just doesn't do this this feels like oh and i'm going to say that phrase this feels like a mobility solution now in fairness neither of them are particularly exciting to drive but the nissan is less so and because they've used that very standard structure underneath engine at the front and say battery underneath it doesn't have the packaging advantages you would expect from electric cars we've got a really massive central transmission tunnel in the back here so there's not enough space for those sitting in the middle of the rear seat their legs to go anywhere and it all feels a bit more cramped in here you sit equally high but the windscreen is narrower it just it feels more like a normal hatchback and it looks more like a normal hatchback this switches everywhere now i'd say the id3's minimalist approach is a little too minimalist so you have to go through various sub menus to get to the sort of stuff you want to use all the time like climate the infotainment system it's just a little bit fiddly whereas this it's over button there's buttons for everything it feels like a wasted opportunity it feels like because you don't have to conform to the norms of the internal combustion engine layout you should have a clean sheet of paper but in conforming to the internal combustion format with the leaf engine up front as i say battery underneath they've missed the trick with the packaging and also because they've based it on the previous generations platform it's starting to feel a bit old i mean going over bumps here it's nicely cushioned nicely damp but you're getting a shimmy through the rear view mirror here you can see you can feel and see there is some twisting in the structure it doesn't feel as as taut as the id3 but it's easy to live with you know yes it costs a fair bit you really have to do your sums but if you can plug it in overnight at home at not very many pence per kilowatt hour it'll be a really cheap thing to run and the range with this one so it claims 239 miles so it's not quite as much as the id3 but honestly it's more than enough for most trips and you can charge it 100 kilowatt hours like you can with the the id3 so that's a good thing it's easy to live with but you feel it could be easier to live with if they'd utilized all the advantages of not having to haul around a big reciprocating piston engine and a petrol tank and all the gubbins that go with it it doesn't feel old-fashioned that's that's unfair it just feels like a car that straddled the two forms of propulsion the internal combustion engine and the electric powertrain it feels a car it's a car that's a bit of a compromise it's a car designed to appeal to people who are unsure they want to go electric they know they do but they don't want it to be too different from the car they've had to drive the last 20 years and that's worked for nissan that's a really good thing you know it does mean that they have sold a lot of leaves but i think people now are starting to understand what electric cars can do and as a result they will start looking to cars like the id3 because they offer some advantages and some unique possibilities that you don't get in a normal five-door family hatchback which ultimately is what the leaf feels like i don't want to have a down on it i feel like i'm having a down on it i really don't i you know it's good it's not exciting to drive we know that which one i have intellectually the id3 the id3 i like the fact that it's taken a completely different approach skateboard chassis motor at the back rear engine volkswagen there's an idea isn't it that's a thought i can't believe they never thought that before but it's it's taking a brand new package and it's using it more effectively whereas this as i say this feels like a car that straddles two worlds it feels like a car that ultimately has had its time so perhaps it's no surprise that when it comes to the reckoning we both think we would rather be in this car a bit more often than we would rather be in the leaf but they are both good they are both really competitive and although there's a lot of hype around the id3 and although i think it will change people's perceptions and their attitudes and it will interest them in evs as they have perhaps not been interested before and it wins this test it doesn't draw daylight between itself and the nissan they are both really good evs youhello you join me inside a volkswagen id3 for another no-nonsense sensible car review and twin test i'm in a volkswagen my colleague and friend james disdail is in a nissan leaf now normally we would do this sort of thing in the same car and have a chat about it but for covert related reasons we cannot be in the same car at the same time but trust me that we have both driven both of these vehicles and because we are consummate road testers true professionals some people have even described me i mean i would be too modest to say some people have even described me as the worst car reviewer on the internet thanks we have come to a conclusion which is broadly the same so james is going to describe the leaf i'm going to describe the id3 and we will conclude and we kind of both come to the same conclusion which is helpful so what is the id3 well it is volkswagen group's new all-electric platform in a family car sized electric vehicle it is about the length of volkswagen golf with 4.3 meters long it's a little bit wider a little bit taller quite a lot heavier there are various power options and various battery sizes this has a 201 horsepower electric motor at the rear axle driving the rear wheels only kind of like beetle so with that power output and with this battery fitted to this car comes in at around 36 000 pounds in the uk after the government grant which is really similar actually to the leaf given it's got a very similar battery very similar power level very similar range and is a very similar size these two are absolutely the rivals for each other and underneath the floor in this kind of skateboardy meb architecture as they call it is a 58 kilowatt hour that's 58 useful kilowatt hours of battery which is good enough for a wltp drive cycle range of 260 miles now i don't think you'll get that it's been a bit chilly the last couple of days i haven't had the car plugged in overnight i think you'll see a range of around 200 miles in that kind of form you get more than that if you were careful and if you started with a warm battery by having it charged overnight and so on now there have been evs before there have been electric volkswagens before james is in a leaf which has sold nearly half a million units since its launch but still i think and a bloke i saw charging in nissan leaf the other day thinks the same there is still quite a lot of hype and quite a lot of expectation this feels like quite a big moment that volkswagen has launched an electric car standalone brand it feels like the start of it feels like a a waypoint on the journey to evs that we are going through and there is something to be said for having a pure electric architecture this cabin is not like any other volkswagen it's really clean it's really crisply designed too much is on touchscreen some of the plastics are actually a little bit harder and scratchier than you might otherwise normally expect of a volkswagen but in terms of its ergonomics and its usability and the driving position things that feel familiar and comfortable about volkswagens are all present and correct there is one thing though right this car has got active lane assist and lay departure warning system to turn it off because it defaults to on and it just niggles every time you're not totally bang in the center of a lane and there are reasons on a country lane while you might not want to be in the central lane you know it might be that there's an upcoming gentle right hander and lorry's coming the other way you just actually will keep to the left of your lane a little bit the steering tries to tug you back the other way it just doesn't stop niggling me talking to you and trying to pull the wheel away from you all the time it is massively irritating and to turn it off i have to press assist on there then i have to press another menu button on there and then i have to press another menu button to actually turn it off and then i have to press the fourth button to go back to the screen that i wanted to in the first place volkswagen will tell you yeah the euro end cap and the you know regulations say has to be that way it doesn't have to be that way the regulations say it cannot be a momentary push of a single button so it could be a prolonged push and other manufacturers have confirmed to me or it could be a quick push of two buttons but it doesn't have to be that many it's so irritating and if it's that hard to turn it off well the chances are that when you get back on a motor anything i wouldn't mind that back on we're not going to turn it on again are you it's unbelievably irritating and if it annoys you don't buy this car run over what is the rest of the car like well as you may know from what you can hear in the background or car near the background refinement is strong this is a really quiet sound stupid i know this is a really quiet driving experience but because there is no engine noise you do notice wind noise and tire raw a little bit more and i think there may be a little bit more than both uh in here than in the leaf this car also feels a little bit firmer than the nissan if anything it feels like this platform is newer and more rigid as you go along the road although there is initial compliance to bumps i think by and large you get more of what a lot of engineers called head toss where the car moves ever so slightly from from side to side but on it i think it's comfortable enough this does ride on 19-inch wheels you probably wouldn't have to have wheels we don't have to have the wheels that big and it may be improved on smaller ones but there is a nice consistency to the controls a nice linearity to the throttle and to the brakes and to the steering which is fairly light self-centers the right sort of way it's it's uncorrupted by torque steer because of course the power goes to the back and not the front and as you corner keenly it retains a fairly flat body just sort of edges into a slight pushiness and in a way feels a bit like maybe a smart or a renault twingo in a quite endearing fashion not as engaging i don't think as some other regular hatchbacks are that are fun to drive by which i mean something like a ford focus which is fun all the time but then this is probably three 400 kilograms heavier than something like that so perhaps that's not surprising that it doesn't have that agility but it's good and i like it so there is decent room in the back there is decent enough room in the boot the boot is slightly bigger than a golf's slightly disappointingly you don't get any room in the front despite the fact that this is a skateboard architecture with the motor at the back basically the front seems to be full of inverter and power equipment which is a bit of a pity because if you're going to build a bespoke architecture why be beholden to some of the limitations of an internally combusted vehicle the lovely thing about tesla is you get a boot in the back you get another one in the front but it is good as james will be telling you though the leaf is also good so the nissan leaf now the nissan leaf you could arguably say this is the benchmark car in this class it wasn't the first electric car um it's arguably the best electric car but it was it was the one that beat the mainstream manufacturers to the punch it was the first family-sized hatchback electric car the one with a range at the time over 100 miles that seemed reasonable you know it it acted like a normal family car but it was electrically powered and it's been a huge success as a result so much so we're now on the second generation car this car here now immediately after any time in the id3 it feels like a a normal car it's much more familiar you could be in a nissan pulsar if that still exists or a qashqai even and the architecture beneath this car is more familiar as well so it is a bespoke ev platform but it's a development of the first nissan leaf platform so we've got an engine in the front front wheel drive batteries underneath that means it doesn't have necessarily the packaging advantages of the id3 it feels like a normal hatchback in here what you do notice after the id3 is the rolling refinement this car just feels quieter sounds quieter there's less road noise there's less wind noise less bump thump except over really nasty potholes it rides a bit more smoothly as well there's a bit more control to it you don't have that sort of head rock that you get in the id3 but it's a very relaxing car to drive you can see why it's so popular if all you want to do is get in the car put it in drive and go it's very good another really neat feature about the nissan leaf and something i really like and i don't know why volkswagen haven't done the same thing on the id3 is we've got the e-pedal device here so this is where you can literally go for maximum regenerative braking and the car slows proportionately as you lift off the throttle you get really strong braking effect and they call it one pedal driving and it genuinely is you can if you anticipate properly you can roll up to a junction lifting off the throttle all the time and come to a nice gradual stop and all the time you are harvesting energy to put back into the battery and that's really clever i like that that is good the rest of the car well it's both familiar like i say he's like a normal hatchback but at the same time it's not so the throttle response is really quite odd it's like i can imagine being the captain of a steam liner where you put your lever forward to full ahead and then someone shouts down the the pipe to the engine room it's not that there's a delay as such it just feels like there isn't a proportional response between what you ask for at the throttle it's got very very short throttle travel it just feels like you put your foot to the floor and it goes oh so you want to go quickly okay well i'll get you there quickly but i'll do it at my own time i'll i'll decide how much torque you should have how quickly you should get there and as a result it doesn't feel as fast as the figure suggests now this car has 214 brake horsepower and a quite healthy 251 pounds for the torque that's quite a lot nissan claim it will do the naughty 62 in about 6.6 seconds that's quick but it never really feels that quick and i don't know whether that's the refinement and obviously you've got the the linearity of the throttle of the power delivery but it is partly down to that really strange throttle response the rest of the car well it's it's okay i mean it's capable it's not very exciting and i know we're probably gonna get hammered on well you know you just don't like electric cars it's not an electric car thing because you can get into a one liter focus or you can get into a one liter golf and you can drive it and there are real there's real satisfaction to be had to it the steering feels nicely connected there's a feeling that the car's pivoting around your hip point particularly in the the focus and this just doesn't do this this feels like oh and i'm going to say that phrase this feels like a mobility solution now in fairness neither of them are particularly exciting to drive but the nissan is less so and because they've used that very standard structure underneath engine at the front and say battery underneath it doesn't have the packaging advantages you would expect from electric cars we've got a really massive central transmission tunnel in the back here so there's not enough space for those sitting in the middle of the rear seat their legs to go anywhere and it all feels a bit more cramped in here you sit equally high but the windscreen is narrower it just it feels more like a normal hatchback and it looks more like a normal hatchback this switches everywhere now i'd say the id3's minimalist approach is a little too minimalist so you have to go through various sub menus to get to the sort of stuff you want to use all the time like climate the infotainment system it's just a little bit fiddly whereas this it's over button there's buttons for everything it feels like a wasted opportunity it feels like because you don't have to conform to the norms of the internal combustion engine layout you should have a clean sheet of paper but in conforming to the internal combustion format with the leaf engine up front as i say battery underneath they've missed the trick with the packaging and also because they've based it on the previous generations platform it's starting to feel a bit old i mean going over bumps here it's nicely cushioned nicely damp but you're getting a shimmy through the rear view mirror here you can see you can feel and see there is some twisting in the structure it doesn't feel as as taut as the id3 but it's easy to live with you know yes it costs a fair bit you really have to do your sums but if you can plug it in overnight at home at not very many pence per kilowatt hour it'll be a really cheap thing to run and the range with this one so it claims 239 miles so it's not quite as much as the id3 but honestly it's more than enough for most trips and you can charge it 100 kilowatt hours like you can with the the id3 so that's a good thing it's easy to live with but you feel it could be easier to live with if they'd utilized all the advantages of not having to haul around a big reciprocating piston engine and a petrol tank and all the gubbins that go with it it doesn't feel old-fashioned that's that's unfair it just feels like a car that straddled the two forms of propulsion the internal combustion engine and the electric powertrain it feels a car it's a car that's a bit of a compromise it's a car designed to appeal to people who are unsure they want to go electric they know they do but they don't want it to be too different from the car they've had to drive the last 20 years and that's worked for nissan that's a really good thing you know it does mean that they have sold a lot of leaves but i think people now are starting to understand what electric cars can do and as a result they will start looking to cars like the id3 because they offer some advantages and some unique possibilities that you don't get in a normal five-door family hatchback which ultimately is what the leaf feels like i don't want to have a down on it i feel like i'm having a down on it i really don't i you know it's good it's not exciting to drive we know that which one i have intellectually the id3 the id3 i like the fact that it's taken a completely different approach skateboard chassis motor at the back rear engine volkswagen there's an idea isn't it that's a thought i can't believe they never thought that before but it's it's taking a brand new package and it's using it more effectively whereas this as i say this feels like a car that straddles two worlds it feels like a car that ultimately has had its time so perhaps it's no surprise that when it comes to the reckoning we both think we would rather be in this car a bit more often than we would rather be in the leaf but they are both good they are both really competitive and although there's a lot of hype around the id3 and although i think it will change people's perceptions and their attitudes and it will interest them in evs as they have perhaps not been interested before and it wins this test it doesn't draw daylight between itself and the nissan they are both really good evs youhello you join me inside a volkswagen id3 for another no-nonsense sensible car review and twin test i'm in a volkswagen my colleague and friend james disdail is in a nissan leaf now normally we would do this sort of thing in the same car and have a chat about it but for covert related reasons we cannot be in the same car at the same time but trust me that we have both driven both of these vehicles and because we are consummate road testers true professionals some people have even described me i mean i would be too modest to say some people have even described me as the worst car reviewer on the internet thanks we have come to a conclusion which is broadly the same so james is going to describe the leaf i'm going to describe the id3 and we will conclude and we kind of both come to the same conclusion which is helpful so what is the id3 well it is volkswagen group's new all-electric platform in a family car sized electric vehicle it is about the length of volkswagen golf with 4.3 meters long it's a little bit wider a little bit taller quite a lot heavier there are various power options and various battery sizes this has a 201 horsepower electric motor at the rear axle driving the rear wheels only kind of like beetle so with that power output and with this battery fitted to this car comes in at around 36 000 pounds in the uk after the government grant which is really similar actually to the leaf given it's got a very similar battery very similar power level very similar range and is a very similar size these two are absolutely the rivals for each other and underneath the floor in this kind of skateboardy meb architecture as they call it is a 58 kilowatt hour that's 58 useful kilowatt hours of battery which is good enough for a wltp drive cycle range of 260 miles now i don't think you'll get that it's been a bit chilly the last couple of days i haven't had the car plugged in overnight i think you'll see a range of around 200 miles in that kind of form you get more than that if you were careful and if you started with a warm battery by having it charged overnight and so on now there have been evs before there have been electric volkswagens before james is in a leaf which has sold nearly half a million units since its launch but still i think and a bloke i saw charging in nissan leaf the other day thinks the same there is still quite a lot of hype and quite a lot of expectation this feels like quite a big moment that volkswagen has launched an electric car standalone brand it feels like the start of it feels like a a waypoint on the journey to evs that we are going through and there is something to be said for having a pure electric architecture this cabin is not like any other volkswagen it's really clean it's really crisply designed too much is on touchscreen some of the plastics are actually a little bit harder and scratchier than you might otherwise normally expect of a volkswagen but in terms of its ergonomics and its usability and the driving position things that feel familiar and comfortable about volkswagens are all present and correct there is one thing though right this car has got active lane assist and lay departure warning system to turn it off because it defaults to on and it just niggles every time you're not totally bang in the center of a lane and there are reasons on a country lane while you might not want to be in the central lane you know it might be that there's an upcoming gentle right hander and lorry's coming the other way you just actually will keep to the left of your lane a little bit the steering tries to tug you back the other way it just doesn't stop niggling me talking to you and trying to pull the wheel away from you all the time it is massively irritating and to turn it off i have to press assist on there then i have to press another menu button on there and then i have to press another menu button to actually turn it off and then i have to press the fourth button to go back to the screen that i wanted to in the first place volkswagen will tell you yeah the euro end cap and the you know regulations say has to be that way it doesn't have to be that way the regulations say it cannot be a momentary push of a single button so it could be a prolonged push and other manufacturers have confirmed to me or it could be a quick push of two buttons but it doesn't have to be that many it's so irritating and if it's that hard to turn it off well the chances are that when you get back on a motor anything i wouldn't mind that back on we're not going to turn it on again are you it's unbelievably irritating and if it annoys you don't buy this car run over what is the rest of the car like well as you may know from what you can hear in the background or car near the background refinement is strong this is a really quiet sound stupid i know this is a really quiet driving experience but because there is no engine noise you do notice wind noise and tire raw a little bit more and i think there may be a little bit more than both uh in here than in the leaf this car also feels a little bit firmer than the nissan if anything it feels like this platform is newer and more rigid as you go along the road although there is initial compliance to bumps i think by and large you get more of what a lot of engineers called head toss where the car moves ever so slightly from from side to side but on it i think it's comfortable enough this does ride on 19-inch wheels you probably wouldn't have to have wheels we don't have to have the wheels that big and it may be improved on smaller ones but there is a nice consistency to the controls a nice linearity to the throttle and to the brakes and to the steering which is fairly light self-centers the right sort of way it's it's uncorrupted by torque steer because of course the power goes to the back and not the front and as you corner keenly it retains a fairly flat body just sort of edges into a slight pushiness and in a way feels a bit like maybe a smart or a renault twingo in a quite endearing fashion not as engaging i don't think as some other regular hatchbacks are that are fun to drive by which i mean something like a ford focus which is fun all the time but then this is probably three 400 kilograms heavier than something like that so perhaps that's not surprising that it doesn't have that agility but it's good and i like it so there is decent room in the back there is decent enough room in the boot the boot is slightly bigger than a golf's slightly disappointingly you don't get any room in the front despite the fact that this is a skateboard architecture with the motor at the back basically the front seems to be full of inverter and power equipment which is a bit of a pity because if you're going to build a bespoke architecture why be beholden to some of the limitations of an internally combusted vehicle the lovely thing about tesla is you get a boot in the back you get another one in the front but it is good as james will be telling you though the leaf is also good so the nissan leaf now the nissan leaf you could arguably say this is the benchmark car in this class it wasn't the first electric car um it's arguably the best electric car but it was it was the one that beat the mainstream manufacturers to the punch it was the first family-sized hatchback electric car the one with a range at the time over 100 miles that seemed reasonable you know it it acted like a normal family car but it was electrically powered and it's been a huge success as a result so much so we're now on the second generation car this car here now immediately after any time in the id3 it feels like a a normal car it's much more familiar you could be in a nissan pulsar if that still exists or a qashqai even and the architecture beneath this car is more familiar as well so it is a bespoke ev platform but it's a development of the first nissan leaf platform so we've got an engine in the front front wheel drive batteries underneath that means it doesn't have necessarily the packaging advantages of the id3 it feels like a normal hatchback in here what you do notice after the id3 is the rolling refinement this car just feels quieter sounds quieter there's less road noise there's less wind noise less bump thump except over really nasty potholes it rides a bit more smoothly as well there's a bit more control to it you don't have that sort of head rock that you get in the id3 but it's a very relaxing car to drive you can see why it's so popular if all you want to do is get in the car put it in drive and go it's very good another really neat feature about the nissan leaf and something i really like and i don't know why volkswagen haven't done the same thing on the id3 is we've got the e-pedal device here so this is where you can literally go for maximum regenerative braking and the car slows proportionately as you lift off the throttle you get really strong braking effect and they call it one pedal driving and it genuinely is you can if you anticipate properly you can roll up to a junction lifting off the throttle all the time and come to a nice gradual stop and all the time you are harvesting energy to put back into the battery and that's really clever i like that that is good the rest of the car well it's both familiar like i say he's like a normal hatchback but at the same time it's not so the throttle response is really quite odd it's like i can imagine being the captain of a steam liner where you put your lever forward to full ahead and then someone shouts down the the pipe to the engine room it's not that there's a delay as such it just feels like there isn't a proportional response between what you ask for at the throttle it's got very very short throttle travel it just feels like you put your foot to the floor and it goes oh so you want to go quickly okay well i'll get you there quickly but i'll do it at my own time i'll i'll decide how much torque you should have how quickly you should get there and as a result it doesn't feel as fast as the figure suggests now this car has 214 brake horsepower and a quite healthy 251 pounds for the torque that's quite a lot nissan claim it will do the naughty 62 in about 6.6 seconds that's quick but it never really feels that quick and i don't know whether that's the refinement and obviously you've got the the linearity of the throttle of the power delivery but it is partly down to that really strange throttle response the rest of the car well it's it's okay i mean it's capable it's not very exciting and i know we're probably gonna get hammered on well you know you just don't like electric cars it's not an electric car thing because you can get into a one liter focus or you can get into a one liter golf and you can drive it and there are real there's real satisfaction to be had to it the steering feels nicely connected there's a feeling that the car's pivoting around your hip point particularly in the the focus and this just doesn't do this this feels like oh and i'm going to say that phrase this feels like a mobility solution now in fairness neither of them are particularly exciting to drive but the nissan is less so and because they've used that very standard structure underneath engine at the front and say battery underneath it doesn't have the packaging advantages you would expect from electric cars we've got a really massive central transmission tunnel in the back here so there's not enough space for those sitting in the middle of the rear seat their legs to go anywhere and it all feels a bit more cramped in here you sit equally high but the windscreen is narrower it just it feels more like a normal hatchback and it looks more like a normal hatchback this switches everywhere now i'd say the id3's minimalist approach is a little too minimalist so you have to go through various sub menus to get to the sort of stuff you want to use all the time like climate the infotainment system it's just a little bit fiddly whereas this it's over button there's buttons for everything it feels like a wasted opportunity it feels like because you don't have to conform to the norms of the internal combustion engine layout you should have a clean sheet of paper but in conforming to the internal combustion format with the leaf engine up front as i say battery underneath they've missed the trick with the packaging and also because they've based it on the previous generations platform it's starting to feel a bit old i mean going over bumps here it's nicely cushioned nicely damp but you're getting a shimmy through the rear view mirror here you can see you can feel and see there is some twisting in the structure it doesn't feel as as taut as the id3 but it's easy to live with you know yes it costs a fair bit you really have to do your sums but if you can plug it in overnight at home at not very many pence per kilowatt hour it'll be a really cheap thing to run and the range with this one so it claims 239 miles so it's not quite as much as the id3 but honestly it's more than enough for most trips and you can charge it 100 kilowatt hours like you can with the the id3 so that's a good thing it's easy to live with but you feel it could be easier to live with if they'd utilized all the advantages of not having to haul around a big reciprocating piston engine and a petrol tank and all the gubbins that go with it it doesn't feel old-fashioned that's that's unfair it just feels like a car that straddled the two forms of propulsion the internal combustion engine and the electric powertrain it feels a car it's a car that's a bit of a compromise it's a car designed to appeal to people who are unsure they want to go electric they know they do but they don't want it to be too different from the car they've had to drive the last 20 years and that's worked for nissan that's a really good thing you know it does mean that they have sold a lot of leaves but i think people now are starting to understand what electric cars can do and as a result they will start looking to cars like the id3 because they offer some advantages and some unique possibilities that you don't get in a normal five-door family hatchback which ultimately is what the leaf feels like i don't want to have a down on it i feel like i'm having a down on it i really don't i you know it's good it's not exciting to drive we know that which one i have intellectually the id3 the id3 i like the fact that it's taken a completely different approach skateboard chassis motor at the back rear engine volkswagen there's an idea isn't it that's a thought i can't believe they never thought that before but it's it's taking a brand new package and it's using it more effectively whereas this as i say this feels like a car that straddles two worlds it feels like a car that ultimately has had its time so perhaps it's no surprise that when it comes to the reckoning we both think we would rather be in this car a bit more often than we would rather be in the leaf but they are both good they are both really competitive and although there's a lot of hype around the id3 and although i think it will change people's perceptions and their attitudes and it will interest them in evs as they have perhaps not been interested before and it wins this test it doesn't draw daylight between itself and the nissan they are both really good evs you\n"