2021 Nissan Leaf
This year drew an ordinary 52 complaints for a Nissan Leaf — the model's median is 57. What they were about is the unusual part: 38.5% of them mention charging, against 6.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 52 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 57 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 108 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- charging — 38.5% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the model's other years (6.3×).
- use — 34.6% of this year's complaints, against 12.2% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: use, 25v-655, recall 25v-655, vehicle cannot.
- unable — 21.2% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the model's other years (2.6×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
Nissan has yet to effectively respond to NHTSA recall 25V-655 concerning a fire hazard when fast charging particular Leaf models including the 2021 model year that I own. As a temporary solution Nissan strongly recommends not to fast charge (Level 3 charge) un…
Vehicle battery drains significantly after being charged, passenger wiper will not work impairing visibility, back up camera blurs and fails, bright lights would not turn on, I was in a huge rain storm unable to see. Inability to use level 3 charger is disallo…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V048000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 23V494000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 24V071000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 25V655000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Leaf was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2021 Nissan Leaf? What happened to yours?
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