Okay. So on Saturday I signed a contract to buy a Nissan Leaf. I’ve wanted an electric car for a while and my Jeep Renegade is making me hate internal combustion engines.

Why a Leaf? Price basically. The only cars that are really in my price range, and currently available on the Australian market, are the Hyundai Ioniq and Kona and the Nissan Leaf. Getting to test drive any EV in Newcastle is practically impossible. A few weeks ago I tried to test drive a Leaf. Of the two Nissan dealers, one did not have any in the showroom and the other didn’t sell them but had one that I couldn’t really look at because the owner allowed the battery to go completely dead. It wouldn’t even let me open the boot. And there are no Hyundai dealers here that are accredited to sell EVs. So a couple of weeks ago I drove an hour down the M1 to Gosford so I could test drive their EVs.

The Kona disqualified itself very quickly. I couldn’t sit in the back seat because there was nowhere to put my feet. There is no gap under driver’s seat when I’d adjusted it to my driving position. I did get to take the Ioniq out and it drives like a regular car. In fact, it reminded me of my wife’s Honda City in the way it handled.

There is also a Nissan dealer at Wyong, between Newcastle and Gosford. I stopped there on the way down. The only person qualified to sell me one was busy, so I continued on to Gosford and test drove the Ioniq. I then returned to Wyong and was able to take the Leaf for a drive. I don’t know if it was because I went out on my own (the sales person accompanied me in the Ioniq) but it was so much more enjoyable to drive. I found the instruments much easier to read and to figure out what it was trying to tell me and I found the e-pedal very intuitive. And the handling was much firmer and steering more direct.

I was sold on the Leaf.