“Well, hopefully it’s a pleasant shock. We were very keen on making sure that the functionality of the hatchback and the interior roominess were kept, but this car is much more efficient at charging and range, and we wanted to make it a little more chic, a little bit more sexy. So I think that there’s, hopefully, nothing wrong with that.”
Those are the words of Giovanny Arroba, a man with a tough task ahead of him.
Arroba is the vice-president of design for Nissan Europe, and so it’s his job to make the new all-electric Leaf good looking enough that the hordes of previous Leaf customers – 290,000 in Europe and 700,000 worldwide since 2010 – will run out and buy one, but so too will many other car buyers around the world. Nissan’s dire financial straits require a big sales hit to right the floundering corporate ship, and the new Leaf will be a crucial part of any Nissan recovery in the coming months and years.
It’s a big ask, but the Leaf is also taking some risks. The outgoing Leaf ditched the 2010 original’s smooth, almost aquatic lines in favour of a more conventional five-door hatchback look, and scored big sales in doing so. Now, though, the new Leaf throws out the hatchback styling in favour of a crossover look, trying to keep pace with modern motoring fashions.
In truth, the new Leaf is still arguably more hatch than SUV, being a mere 10mm taller than the old model, but it’s still a big change in styling terms for customers to come to terms with, and as the old adage goes, we eat with our eyes first. Thankfully, The Irish Times had Arroba – a veteran of Nissan design, with seven years working in Japan behind him – to talk us through the styling of the new Leaf. Our first question – why turn it into a crossover? Was it something that customers asked for? Or did Nissan just assume that it’s what everyone would want?
“Well, it’s definitely resonating with the customers,” says Arroba.
“Nissan has been at the forefront of the crossover market, with the Qashqai, with the Juke, we were right in there, pioneering that segment, just like the Leaf was the pioneer of electrification at that price point. So for us, it was a no-brainer to combine these two elements into reimagining the new Leaf.”
Arroba’s team has worked some small wonders with the new Leaf, which is more spacious in the cabin and boot than its hatchback predecessor, despite being shorter overall, and only fractionally taller and wider. How has that been done? “This platform is dedicated to electric cars,” said Arroba. “So we’ve been able to shorten the front overhang and get that agile, crossover stance with big 19in wheels pushed out to the corners.
“This electrified platform has become much more efficient for us to create a compact, agile footprint, but still maximising the interior space. Even the centre console, between the seats – we’re able to carve that space out and add much more knee room. And we’ve put the drive mode switches up on to the dashboard, and that creates some more room for your wireless car phone charger, your cup holders, your knees. There’s an overall sense of spaciousness, even with the glass roof, which adds an extra 30mm of headroom.”
That glass roof is clever, thanks to its dimming glass and its heat-absorbing coating. It means that there’s no need for a sun blind, and so Arroba’s team was able to drop the rear roof by 12mm on the outside, benefiting the Leaf’s aerodynamic properties, without compromising on rear passenger space. The effect, and the multiple effects from carefully tweaking the shape for efficiency, have been profound.
[ Micra Goes Electric: Nissan’s funky supermini gets a high-tech makeoverOpens in new window ]
“One of the most important things for us was getting the range, 604km of range. But that’s really been done by the way we’ve shaped the car aerodynamically. So yes, we want to reimagine the car, reimagine the silhouette, but that was really both for style and also for efficiency and giving the customer the most range they can out of this battery at that price point, but very conscious of not removing any of the functionality or headroom.
“So despite its sleek, circular, slippery shape, headroom and luggage capacity is not degraded. That’s when the science, and shaping inside the wind tunnel, really came into play.
“So every little element of this car, even the little extra radius on the inside of the wheel arch, or the 45-degree angle of the roof line and the height of the rear deck lid, the height of the front edge of the bonnet, all of these things play a role in how we cut through the air more efficiently.
“Even this door mirror is different to our previous mirror, but the shape adds an extra mile-and-a-half of range.
“These kinds of small things make up a big effect. It might be minuscule to, let’s say, have the door handle being flush, but when you add it all up, it does become more slippery, and also, from a design perspective, sleeker and a bit more chic.”
