Alpine A290 vs Nissan LEAF

The Nissan LEAF costs £2,004 more than the Alpine A290. For that premium it adds 141 miles more WLTP range, 50 kW faster peak rapid charging and 111 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Nissan LEAF comes out ahead overall.

The Alpine A290 is £2,004 cheaper to buy. The Nissan LEAF is cheaper to charge, roughly £136 a year versus £184 for the Alpine A290, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Alpine A290 comes out roughly £1,764 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 155 miles for the Alpine A290 and 313 miles for the Nissan LEAF - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Nissan LEAF goes roughly 158 miles further between charging stops. Both rapid-charge to 80% in a similar time, around 30-30 minutes.

The two are within 13 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 590 mm of total clearance for the Nissan LEAF and about 577 mm of total clearance for the Alpine A290. The Alpine A290 also turns in a 0.6 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Alpine A290 and 84% for the Nissan LEAF. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.