Will big award sway Nissan consideration of latest electric’s chances for NZ sale?

LATEST recipient of a high profile global award founded by a New Zealander is a car whose ongoing role in her homeland seems uncertain just now.

Announcement this week that the latest Nissan Leaf is the Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY), a prize founded in 2009 by Kiwi writer Sandy Myhre, comes as the model’s distributor deliberates the pros and cons of selling any kind of electric car here.

Nissan New Zealand has just decided the Leaf’s larger sister model, the Ariya, isn’t worth keeping.

Confirmation that five-seater SUV has been dropped after just 14 months on sale, and fewer than 100 registrations accrued, came last week.

Leaf is very close to regional availability; Nissan Australia - to which the NZ office has become a satellite operation - has suggested it could have it within the month.

Nissan NZ has yet to say it if is going along on that ride, or will sit out on continuing with the world-famous nameplate, which has the highest population count of any EV here, with almost 27,000 examples.

However, that imprint is due to popularity as a used import.

The count of NZ-new examples of the Leaf represents as small tribe and the big conceivable challenge for Nissan to add in a new car that would conceivably bolster the count are twofold.

First, the market for new EVs is in turmoil; monthly counts now are very low. Also, there’s the conflict in the Middle East to consider.

Oil price increases will cause pain to ICE motoring, and might trigger a swing back to electric.

But oill price hikes hurt every aspect of life; shipping cost of getting the Leaf here might have become highly uncertain, as it sources from a plant in Sunderland, the United Kingdom.

The fastest route from there is via the Middle East; and those lanes are currently in high jeopardy.

Nissan NZ’s only comment to date about Leaf is that an announcement can be expected within the next few weeks.

WWCOTY is decided by an 86-strong international jury comprised exclusively of women automotive journalists; none from New Zealand (Myhre continues as honorary president).

Latest Leaf is the third generation, and a massive step away from its predecessors, which represented as hatchbacks rather than the SUV format it now adopts.

The nameplate dates back to 2010, when it launched as the world’s first mass‑market electric vehicle.

WWCOTY’s choice was from a field of 55 vehicles. All eligible candidates for this 15th edition of the awards had to be new models launched in at least two continents or 40 countries between January and December 2025.