Nissan’s Leaf has just gone through a bigger transformation than a tree leaf getting ready for fall. For the brand, it’s a risk, it’s an opportunity, and for the head of the project, it’s a chance to shine.
I spoke with Giovanny Arroba, VP of Nissan Design Europe and the lead in the design of the 2025 Leaf. He talked about what went into making the Leaf a crossover, making it as sleek as possible, and about the details that the company has hidden for you to find.
After 15 Years, the Nissan Leaf Turns Into a Crossover
With nearly 15 years as a tiny hatchback, why did Nissan decide it was time to remake the Leaf as a crossover? Arroba didn’t come out and say it was because that’s the shape people actually buy, but he did give some reasons why it may be better for both space and range.
This is the first Leaf not based on an existing gas car. That new platform gave the Leaf team some opportunities.
“It’s very important as a family car,” Arroba said. “We don’t want to compromise on the luggage space.”
The crossover shape allowed it to be more aerodynamic than a hatchback, and the new bones let Arroba and team make the Leaf bigger inside.
The new purpose-built electric platform has less car ahead of the front tires and behind the rears. Less overhang means less wasted space because the passengers go between the wheels. The new Leaf is almost 2 inches shorter than the old one, but it has more space inside, which is what buyers want.
“We can make the footprint more agile while still expanding interior roominess and keeping the car up and growing,” he said. Pushing the wheels to the corners makes it look bigger, while raising the seat height slightly makes it feel larger from behind the wheel. “You have a better, commanding view of the road,” Arroba said.
‘Flush & Seamless’ for New Leaf
Designing the new EV needed a new focus on design. Fuel economy is important for a gas-powered model, but it’s not crucial. When it comes to EVs, it is.
A sleeker shape means a smaller battery for the same range. The lighter battery helps make hitting range targets easier again, and a smaller battery slashes costs. Cutting range targets to save those costs means your car is overlooked for one that can go farther, making it a non-starter.
“We had a mantra of flush and seamless,” Arroba said. It extended deep into the design, with stylists and engineers even focusing on the size of the gaps between the panels. Arroba said that changing the gaps might not have added range, but the mantra did. Smaller gaps also make the vehicle look more expensive, he said.
The design and engineering teams spent countless hours in the company’s wind tunnel. There, they explored how every tiny change to the shape made a difference in how the vehicle cut through the air.
Arroba said they took 300 clay models to the tunnel, along with the modelers. They could see the effects of tiny adjustments in near-real time instead of waiting weeks to have new models made, shipped, and tested.
“Sometimes it’s a bit of a mysterious art,” he said. “Sometimes, intuitively, what you think is an aerodynamic shape … what you think is smoother and keeps the air like the tear drop sometimes doesn’t work. Because it really depends on where the air took off.”
New Leaf Needed ‘Personality’
At the same time, the new Nissan Leaf’s design needed to have “emotion, personality, and brand impact,” Arroba said. Some lines needed to be there for brand identity, others for safety. Both needed to be massaged to work with the shape.
The process led to details like how the hood and headlights line up, which was changed to benefit airflow as well as packaging and pedestrian safety. If those weren’t enough things to worry about, Arroba even had to be aware of how the shape would take to two-tone paint for both design and manufacturing.
Why isn’t it a more upright crossover, something more rugged? Buyers love rugged models like the Xterra, he said, but the upright shape would never hit range targets. A model like that needs to do things like put a bike in the back. Meanwhile, the Leaf’s sleeker roofline still has lots of luggage space, but delivers more range.
Leaf Says Nissan From Nose to Tail
Arroba said one of his favorite design elements is the two-three taillights.
In Japanese, “ni” is how you pronounce the number two, and three is said “san.” Two-three is Nissan, so the two- and three-bar element taillights are like a secret badge. You’ll see Nissan racing cars and concepts wearing the number 23 quite often, so putting it on the Leaf is a fun touch.
“Lots of cars have an illuminated tail bar,” Arroba said. “As the shapes become similar, it’s how we treat them that matters. Instead of just a line of light, what graphic can we do?” the team asked.
There is one last little treat for the all-new Nissan Leaf. Arroba said his team wanted to create a leaf-like graphic to make the new model feel extra special. So it took a stylized version of the ginkgo leaf, which is the official leaf of Tokyo. We won’t tell you where, but somewhere inside the new Leaf is hidden that small leaf — the perfect easter egg for a vehicle line like this.
The result of the Nissan Leaf’s design? An estimated 303 miles from a 75kWh lithium-ion battery in the S+ trim. That’s an extra half mile for every kilowatt-hour compared with the old Leaf. A nearly 15% improvement despite the new model having more power, comfort, and refinement.
Oh, and it’s no longer the strangest-looking car sold in the U.S.
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