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Those of us who follow electric vehicles and have lamented the fact that all the affordable EVs went away in 2024 were pretty stoked to see that the new 2026 Gen-3 Leaf will have a very low MSRP. Many in the media are calling the 2026 Leaf S+ an “Under $30K” vehicle, but they are just pandering. All of the folks in this industry who create content know the actual cost is $31,485. The press release makes that factually obvious, but you know how it is. Punchy headlines are worth more than facts, particularly when it comes to battery electric vehicles that have not yet been launched.
What I haven’t seen mentioned by the swooning automotive content creators who think the Nissan Leaf S+ trim’s price is super impressive is what they think about the lower-spec S trim that you can find in the press kit. Maybe they didn’t bother to open and read all the press kit materials? We get it. TikTok has destroyed our attention spans.
The base 2026 Leaf S price has not yet been announced, and the press release didn’t say when it might appear. We reached out to Nissan, who quickly confirmed the Leaf S does have a lower capacity (less expensive) battery pack and a less powerful (more affordable) powertrain. Nissan has one of the most responsive and helpful PR teams in the business, and they answer my question in under one business hour of my asking.
I’m really glad I reached out. You see, a $31,485 Nissan Leaf isn’t really news. The current 2025 Leaf costs less than that. The 2025 Nissan Leaf is a legitimate “under $30K” electric vehicle. Most of the automotive media ignore it because it’s here, it’s real, and it’s imperfect. The buying public mostly ignores it, too, because its range is ridiculously low by comparison to other EVs that cost about $7K more. The Chevy Equinox EV LT trim, base Hyundai Kona EV, and base Kia Niro EV are all better values, and they have more appropriate ranges. They all barely sell as well when compared to any successful vehicle, but they are EVs, so we pretend their super-low volumes are OK.
The Nissan Leaf S will have a battery pack with a 52 kWh capacity compared to the S+’s higher capacity 75 kWh battery pack. That means the S will not have the approximately 303-mile range that the S+ will have, but instead have a range right around 200 miles. We mathed it out to around 208 miles, but these are just estimates. 208 is not bad considering the Hyundai Ioniq 5N has just 221 miles of estimated range. Right?
The S trim of the Leaf will also have a powertrain rated at 174 horsepower and 254 lb-ft of torque, instead of the S+ powertrain’s rating of 214 horsepower with 261 lb-ft of torque. So, the S will feel a bit pokier, but 254 lb-ft of torque is nothing to sneeze at. It will feel more responsive when accelerating than any ICE-equipped vehicle under $30, that is for sure. Will there even be any sub-$30K ICE vehicles left in 2026? Because of its lower-weight battery pack, the S trim is listed as being 232 pounds lighter than the S+.
The S will have the same infotainment system as the S+, according to the specs, with a 12.3-inch screen and standard Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. It also has the same 18-inch tire size. Nissan’s excellent ProPILOT safety and driver assist system is standard on the S and S+.
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I asked Nisan to confirm my premise that the S is a lower-rated trim and that, in fact, it is coming. Two members of the team confirmed. One offered that it is expected to arrive in the spring of 2026. They can’t provide any price point info because they don’t know it. My guess is that the base S will truly be a sub-$30K EV. Likely priced at around $29,999, but perhaps lower.
The biggest news around the new 2026 Gen-3 Nissan Leaf is that there may truly be a sub-$30K variant. It’s a shame that the media had to pretend the S+ was that car, but at least we have a low-cost EV on the way, and it looks fantastic based on everything we have seen thus far.
Tell us in the comments what you think a new 2026 Nissan Leaf S will be priced at if its more expensive trim is $31,485. Could it be $27K, or is that too much to expect?
Here is the spec page of the Nissan Leaf showing the S trim details.
John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.
Representative image of the 2026 Nissan Leaf provided courtesy of Nissan.
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Source: torquenews.com
