Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Nissan Leaf

What it says about you

Opinion

You went electric early and dealt with things nobody deals with now. When people complain about range anxiety you have a look you do.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

17 model years on record, 1,465 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2022 (fast charging), 2020 (electrical system), 2019 (electrical system). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • brake 2012, 2013, 2015 peak 63.9% of that year's complaints
  • brakes 2012, 2013, 2015 peak 59.3% of that year's complaints
  • charging 2021, 2022 peak 44.9% of that year's complaints
  • electrical system 2019, 2020 peak 33.8% of that year's complaints
  • seat 2011, 2012 peak 30.5% of that year's complaints
  • aware 2019, 2020 peak 29.4% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 2 recalls 4 complaints
  2. 2025 nothing on record 14 complaints
  3. 2024 nothing on record 10 complaints
  4. 2023 3 recalls 19 complaints
  5. 2022 fast charging 178 complaints
  6. 2021 4 recalls 52 complaints
  7. 2020 electrical system 320 complaints
  8. 2019 electrical system 376 complaints
  9. 2018 4 recalls 66 complaints
  10. 2017 2 recalls 14 complaints
  11. 2016 4 recalls 36 complaints
  12. 2015 4 recalls 108 complaints
  13. 2014 6 recalls 34 complaints
  14. 2013 5 recalls 81 complaints
  15. 2012 0 recalls 57 complaints
  16. 2011 0 recalls 95 complaints
  17. 2010 0 recalls 1 complaints

What does a Nissan Leaf say about you?

Loading comments…

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.