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Nissan Leaf

compact electric car manufactured by Nissan

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ911323 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Nissan Leaf (Japanese: 日産・リーフ, Hepburn: Nissan Rīfu; stylized as LEAF) is a battery electric car produced by Nissan since 2010. It was offered exclusively as a 5-door hatchback until 2025, when it became a crossover SUV model. The term "LEAF" serves as a backronym to leading environmentally-friendly affordable family car.

The Leaf was unveiled on 1 August 2009 as the world's first mass market electric and zero-emission vehicle. Among other awards and recognition, it received the 2010 Green Car Vision Award, the 2011 European Car of the Year, the 2011 World Car of the Year, and the 2011–2012 Car of the Year Japan. The Leaf's range on a full charge has been steadily increased from 117 km (73 miles) to 364 km (226 miles) (EPA rated) by the use of larger battery packs and several minor improvements.

As of September 2021, European sales totalled more than 208,000, and as of December 2021, over 165,000 had been sold in the U.S., and 157,000 in Japan. Global sales across both generations totalled 577,000 by February 2022. The Leaf was the world's all-time top selling plug-in electric car until it was surpassed in early 2020 by the Tesla Model 3.

First generation (ZE0; 2010)

The first generation Nissan Leaf was in production from 2010 to 2017.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Nissan Leaf” as compact electric car manufactured by Nissan. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nissan, Leaf and compact.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 2025, 2009, 2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Nissan, Leaf and compact providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nissan Leaf”, the useful work is to connect “compact electric car manufactured by Nissan” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q911323. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2025, 2009 and 2011.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nissan Leaf”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nissan Leaf primary sources, Nissan Leaf archive and Nissan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nissan Leaf”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nissan Leaf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.