New ZS EV vs LEAF

[MoDolph]

Hi all, first post so be gentle

After owning a 24 kWh LEAF Acenta as our only car for the past 7.5 years we finally feel that it is time for an upgrade. We tested a Trophy Connect ZS at the weekend and thought people might be interested in the observations we had.

We only had the car for an hour and we both wanted to drive it so our time was limited, especially compared to the 7 day test drive of the LEAF back in 2014. We mostly pootled around our local area and only briefly took it on the motorway.

We have placed an order for a white trophy.

Comfort - No better or worse than the LEAF. I'm 6ft 6 so obviously there was no space behind me but the seating position was good and heated seats are nice. Rear headroom is not great for me but acceptable. The rear vents are good to have as we will be carrying a child and dog in the back on most journeys. Overall, for the size of car I think the interior space is not great, the ID3 for example puts it to shame and is a much smaller car.

It felt like there was a draught coming from the door area which made my legs and feet feel cold despite the heater set to blow on them.

Noise was about the same, the motor is mostly silent at low power and when cruising but there is a definite whine when you accelerate which I quite enjoy.

App - Must have. Provided I can defrost in a morning and keep the dog cool for 10mins in summer whilst I nip into a shop I'm happy. The Nissan app is not the most reliable so I hope the MG version is better.

Driving - The accelerator response is terrible. There is a huge delay between putting your foot down and anything happening, this makes it feel sluggish and disconnected. This was in sport mode, it's even worse in eco and normal. Honestly, I don't know why manufacturers want to emulate ICE cars when electric can be so much better.

Regen was ok. The battery was at 77% when we collected it so there should be maximum regen available. It was only slightly more than B mode in the LEAF, I was hoping for more to be honest.

I thought the steering was good and the suspension was nice but new cars always feel tight.

Visibility is excellent. The seating position is a little higher. Shoulder checks are much easier than the LEAF due to the position of the pillar and the fact that there is no tinting on the rear windows. Blind spot detection is nice to have but I'm not sure I want to trust it. Do people really not look over their shoulder when changing lanes on the motorway when using it?

Headlights - Even though we didn't have a chance to test them the LEDs have to be better than the halogens we currently have.

ACC - This was a must have feature for me. The stalk is in a stupid place but we'd get used to it. If only it used regen.

360 camera - This was a must have for The Mrs. It works but I was surprised at how poor quality the cameras were.

Battery and charging - Our LEAF is currently on ~78% SOH giving a useable capacity of 17 kWh meaning a winter range of 50 miles so the upgrade to 68 kWh should be huge. The charging curve of the LEAF is also very "peaky". What I mean by this is that 0%-40% will be at 45 kW but it then quickly drops to 20 kW by 80%, this encourages you to go as deep as possible resulting in you being rewarded for arriving at a charger with <10 miles of range. When using a 50 kW charger the ZS has a flat curve to 80% so if you need to add 30 miles of range to complete your trip you can do it at any point between 0% and 65% without taking a time penalty, this allows much more flexibility when planning stops.

Due to the poor efficiency I suspect that the charge rate in mph will not be much better than the LEAF even at 70 kW but that's ok.

Having the charging flap on the front is the best place.

The manual battery heater is a good feature, I'd much rather have control over this than allow the car to guess when I might want it. No unwanted coldgate on long trips or energy wastage on short trips.

Range and efficiency - It's not a good sign when the t-shirts for sale on this site seem to suggest that people are proud to get 4+ m/kWh. During our test drive the consumption was 3.2 m/kWh. I would have expected to get at least 3.8 m/kWh from the LEAF in similar conditions. From reading this forum I understand that on long trips, at 70 mph gps speed, in winter we are likely to see as low as 2 m/kWh giving a minimum range of 136 miles, in summer maybe 3 m/kWh or 204 miles. If the battery degrades at the same rate as LEAF this results in 106 and 159 miles after 8 years, not great but still ok for us.

Overall it comes down to price. There is simply nothing else that has all of the features we want for this price. Good headlights, an app, >50 kW CCS charging, reversing camera, 7 year warranty and >150 miles range.

 

[teepee]

Many thanks for your observations.

 

[jazzist]

Accelerator response - was auto hold on?

 

[MoDolph]

Accelerator response - was auto hold on?

No. I turned it off straight away

 

[drmcw]

Nice write up. I'm coming from a leaf too and have my test drive on Friday!

 

[MoDolph]

Nice write up. I'm coming from a leaf too and have my test drive on Friday!

Thanks and good luck with the test. It will be good to hear what you think.

 

[dm57]

I am also coming from a leaf which has been a fantastic reliable car for us over the last 5 years. Many long round trips 500 miles plus. Looking forward to shorter stops splash and dash as opposed to several stops every 80 miles or so.

 

[MoDolph]

I am also coming from a leaf which has been a fantastic reliable car for us over the last 5 years. Many long round trips 500 miles plus. Looking forward to shorter stops splash and dash as opposed to several stops every 80 miles or so.

They really are good cars, ours is original apart from the wipers, tyres and the badge (which started peeling). If the e+ 62 kWh had CCS we would likely just buy another.

Back in 2015 when the Electric Highway was free and we didn't have children we drove it from Warrington to Eindhoven just for the adventure. Those were the days!

 

[Lovemyev]

Welcome and good write up !.
As a read through your views on the ZS face lift, I had very quickly come to the conclusion the car was not your cup of tea, for the some of reasons you firmly pointed out.
But then, I had a "flash back" and scrolled back up the top of the thread, just to check if my eye's had not deceived me ?.
But no, there it is !.
You have ordered one regardless ................... well done ! ( I think ?.)
I truly hope you are going to be happy with it after honeymoon period has ended @MoDolph
Can you live with the issues you have quickly found on your brief test drive, over a longer time scale ?.
Please don't think I am being critical here, I am just concerned the love affair could be very brief.
Many owners upgrading from the previous ZS EV will embrace the changes with open arm's.
But new potential owners of the ZS EV who are shifting across from another EV - maybe less so.
I think you would agree, that the ZS EV and the Leaf are two completely different beasts in many ways really.
The Leaf was built from the ground up to be an EV - Not so the ZS.
You are comparing a brand new car, to a much loved 7+ year old car and you have voiced your concerns over already.
Never going to be a super smooth transition / migration really.
Maybe you will grow to like it ?‍ ????.
Or on the other hand ........................
( I would take another test drive if I was you, you have to be at least 95% happy with your choice ).
Good luck, be happy and comfortable with your decision.

 

[MoDolph]

Welcome and good write up !.
As a read through your views on the ZS face lift, I had very quickly come to the conclusion the car was not your cup of tea, for the some of reasons you firmly pointed out.
But then, I had a "flash back" and scrolled back up the top of the thread, just to check if my eye's had not deceived me ?.
But no, there it is !.
You have ordered one regardless ................... well done ! ( I think ?.)
I truly hope you are going to be happy with it after honeymoon period has ended @MoDolph
Can you live with the issues you have quickly found on your brief test drive, over a longer time scale ?.
Please don't think I am being critical here, I am just concerned the love affair could be very brief.
Many owners upgrading from the previous ZS EV will embrace the changes with open arm's.
But new potential owners of the ZS EV who are shifting across from another EV - maybe less so.
I think you would agree, that the ZS EV and the Leaf are two completely different beasts in many ways really.
The Leaf was built from the ground up to be an EV - Not so the ZS.
You are comparing a brand new car, to a much loved 7+ year old car and you have voiced your concerns over already.
Never going to be a super smooth transition / migration really.
Maybe you will grow to like it ?‍ ????.
Or on the other hand ........................
( I would take another test drive if I was you, you have to be at least 95% happy with your choice ).
Good luck, be happy and comfortable with your decision.

It's a fair comment, I'm just weird that way I guess. When I test something I like to be as critical as I can to try and avoid getting caught up in the emotion of wanting something shiny and new.

Everything is always a compromise and too many people focus too much on the positives and don't recognise the negatives. Or, they assign too much importance to the negatives and end up buying something more expensive that they don't really need. For example; how many people have bought the previous gen car thinking it will do more miles than it can and then regret it? Or, paid £10k more for a car to have a feature they could live without?

The "love affair" is exactly what I want to avoid. I want it to be a cold, logical decision. The love will hopefully develop over time.

I could write a similar review of the LEAF focusing on the negatives, and there are plenty, but I wouldn't change my decision to buy it those years ago.