My weekend with a Nissan Leaf

I’ve never been one to gush over a car. As long as it gets me safely from point A to point B and doesn’t cost the earth (in more ways than one) I’m happy. Even so, the opportunity to take the Nissan Leaf electric car for a weekend held enormous appeal.

In principle, I’m a massive fan of electric vehicles, but I had never actually sat in one let alone driven one.

The Nissan Leaf’s quirky styling immediately had me smitten. The headlights are like frog eyes and its body is sleek and sporty.

The interior is smart too and was luxuriously spacious with plenty of leg and head room.

Climbing behind the wheel and switching on the power button activates a host of lights on the dashboard in a futuristically impressive fashion.

Its clever on-board computer includes a sat-nav, a rear-camera for reversing, and can even look-up nearby charging points.

There’s even an app so you can instruct the car to warm up from afar so it’s toasty upon arrival.

As expected, the car was disconcertingly silent. More surprisingly, it was quick – its power immediate and responsive, and torque uphill was even and constant.

It was a pleasure to drive in weekend city traffic, as well as winding country roads. It felt robust and sure-footed and handled well. Once I had adjusted to the auto gearbox it was a pretty relaxing experience.

When it comes to charging up the battery there are a few options. You can recharge with a standard cable and household plug that takes up to eight hours. Great for me but admittedly no good if you live in a block of flats or don’t have a garage or driveway.

The other options are offered via charging points, which takes around half the time. Better yet, there are also rapid charge points that take about 30 minutes. Using these spots is free, so in the cities you’ll escape annoying parking fees.

While North East England is incredibly well plugged-in, lack of recharging points elsewhere in the country poses a problem for distance driving and requires meticulous forward planning.

But things are getting better. I was reliably informed that charging points are arriving on both the M6 and M1 so ‘range anxiety’ may well soon become a thing of the past.

A full charge will last for about 100 miles, which costs roughly £2 in electricity. It doesn’t take much number crunching to realise the significant savings this offers.

At £31,000 the Leaf isn’t cheap, but drivers can claim a £5,000 government grant towards this upfront cost.

Running costs are cheaper than its conventional counterparts. Aside from the eye-watering fuel savings, electric cars are exempt from tax and congestion charges and tend to have cheaper insurance premiums.

So if you drive to work and have access to charging points, it’s worth seeing if the sums work for you.

A stress-free option could be to lease one, which works out at about £250 a month – which is likely to work out less than the average monthly fuel bill.

I can safely conclude that my weekend with the Leaf was a joy and when I’m ready to purchase a car in the future, it will be at the top of my list. Even my petrol-head husband agreed.

For information on charging points in North East England visit the Charge Your Car website.

For details on electric vehicle grants go to the Department of Transport website.