When it comes to electric vehicles, range is a factor of utmost importance as it illustrates how far they could traverse before running out of battery.
Boosting an electric vehicle’s range could also mean boosting its market sales. Just last week, the new Nissan LEAF was reported to give a range of 225 miles, beating the Tesla Model 3 by five miles and putting it to the number five spot of the list electric cars with longest ranges.
Nevertheless, range is just one of the many factors to consider in choosing the better electric car. Below is how the 2019 Nissan LEAF compares to Tesla Model 3.
Brand Recognition
In the automotive industry, Tesla is a brand that is comparable to Apple of the computer, smartphone industry. With its sophisticated design and product quality, Tesla is tagged as the hottest corporate brand. Its strong brand recognition made approximately half a million people to reserve their own Tesla Model 3 units prior their delivery.
However, Tesla is not a commonplace for most of the automotive industry’s current and potential customers. Some common people would not even know what Tesla is selling or have never heard of it. This is where Nissan beats Tesla in terms of brand recognition. It has been in the industry for quite a long time.
In short, Tesla is the current hype, but Nissan has been the long-time trusted brand known by commoners around the globe; and people tend to keep going back to traditional automotive companies rather than trying a start-up.
Network of Charging Stations
Tesla Model 3 could be a better choice when it comes to public charging convenience, thanks to its “vast, well-integrated, reliable, and well-designed network of superfast charging stations.” According to GAS2 Org’s research, this factor is a serious requirement for many electric vehicle users in their next purchase, but there are also a lot of users who do not consider public charging as a necessity at all.
Although it may not be at par with Tesla’s network of charging stations, Nissan’s fairly developed CHAdeMO network of fast chargers could suffice the support needed in the regional electric car driving.
Other Specifications and Price
Comparing the two electric cars, Nissan LEAF has a bit lower specifications than the Tesla Model 3. For instance, it would take Nissan LEAF about 6.5 seconds to reach 100 km-per-hour speed, which is about one second slower than Tesla Model 3. Also, Nissan LEAF’s charging speed is slower than Tesla Model 3 – 100+ kWh versus 120+ kWh. However, Nissan LEAF offers a much affordable price than Tesla.
[via Gas2]
Range only matters if you want to travel long distances and can meaningfully charge in a realistic time frame. Without any access to the Tesla supercharging network along the major freeway conduits, there is no competition.
“range is a factor of utmost importance” contradicts “range is just one of the many factors to consider in choosing the better electric car. ” in the same article…??
Nissan was stupid to not switch to CCS charging protocol – it will be the universal standard,as almost all automakers have commited to it. It has 350KW and 500KW max chargers, far faster than CHAdeMO or Tesla.