BMW i3 vs Nissan LEAF

The BMW i3 is £819 cheaper to buy. The Nissan LEAF is cheaper to charge, roughly £136 a year versus £168 for the BMW i3, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the BMW i3 comes out roughly £659 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 129 miles for the BMW i3 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 183 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 42 minutes in the BMW i3 and 30 in the Nissan LEAF, so the Nissan LEAF loses less time at each stop. That makes the Nissan LEAF the stronger long-distance car.

The BMW i3 is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 35 mm narrower than the Nissan LEAF. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 625 mm of total clearance for the BMW i3 and about 590 mm of total clearance for the Nissan LEAF. The BMW i3 also turns in a 0.9 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 88% battery health for the BMW i3 and 84% for the Nissan LEAF. That gives the BMW i3 a modest edge in retained real-world range. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.