Nissan LEAF vs VW e-Golf

The Nissan LEAF costs £5,154 more than the VW e-Golf. For that premium it adds 257 miles more WLTP range, 110 kW faster peak rapid charging and 96 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Nissan LEAF comes out ahead overall.

The VW e-Golf is £5,154 cheaper to buy. The Nissan LEAF is cheaper to charge, roughly £136 a year versus £168 for the VW e-Golf, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW e-Golf comes out roughly £4,994 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 313 miles for the Nissan LEAF and 71 miles for the VW e-Golf - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Nissan LEAF goes roughly 242 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 30 minutes in the Nissan LEAF and 22 in the VW e-Golf, so the VW e-Golf loses less time at each stop. So the Nissan LEAF stops less often while the VW e-Golf stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 11 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 601 mm of total clearance for the VW e-Golf and about 590 mm of total clearance for the Nissan LEAF.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Nissan LEAF and 84% for the VW e-Golf. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.