2019 Nissan Leaf: common problems and reliability

The 2019 Nissan Leaf has 372 owner-filed NHTSA complaints and 5 recalls on record. The most-reported areas are electrical system and fuel/propulsion system. Owners most often flag severe battery degradation and cold-weather performance loss (gen1: 2011-2013) — rapid loss of battery capacity, "lizard" battery issues, catastrophic range loss in cold weather, leading to unusable vehicles. frequency: very frequent.

Safety record for the 2019 model year

372
Owner complaints
5
Recalls
8
Crash reports
4
Fire reports

Source: NHTSA complaints and recalls filed for 2019 Nissan Leaf vehicles (US, public record).

Where owners report problems

electrical system
239
fuel/propulsion system
48
visibility/wiper
24
service brakes
19
back over prevention
17

Recalls affecting the 2019 Leaf

back over prevention: sensing system: camera

Campaign 19V654000

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2019 Nissan Altima, Armada, Frontier, Kicks, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, NV, NV200, Pathfinder, Rogue, Rogue Sport, Sentra, Titan, Titan Diesel, Versa Note and Vers…

equipment:other:owners/service/other manual

Campaign 23V048000

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2023 LEAF vehicles. The Owner's Manual instructions for defroster operation are incorrect, and may result in reduced defroster performance under specific cond…

vehicle speed control

Campaign 23V494000

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2023 LEAF vehicles. The vehicle may accelerate unintentionally if the driving mode is changed ("D" to "B"; e-Pedal "On"; or "ECO" mode) after disengaging the …

back over prevention: sensing system: camera

Campaign 24V071000

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2022 LEAF vehicles. Damage to the camera harness can cause distortion or loss of the rearview camera display image. As such, these vehicles fail to comply wit…

What owners say across generations

Sentiment is sharply divided by generation and use case. For the first-generation models (notably 2011-2013), feedback is overwhelmingly negative due to severe battery degradation, loss of remote access services, and poor cold-weather performance, leading to s

  • Severe battery degradation and cold-weather performance loss (Gen1: 2011-2013) — Rapid loss of battery capacity, "lizard" battery issues, catastrophic range loss in cold weather, leading to unusable vehicles. Frequency: very frequent.
  • Passive battery thermal management — Causes rapid state-of-charge (SOC) drop during highway driving in cold weather, battery isolation faults, swollen cells, and long-term health concerns. Cited as a fundamental design flaw. Frequency: very frequent.
  • Outdated CHAdeMO fast-charging standard — Limited and declining public charger availability, making road trips difficult and reducing long-term utility. Frequency: very frequent.
  • Loss of remote telematics services (Gen1) — Nissan shutdown of servers for pre-2016 models, disabling remote battery status checks and cabin pre-conditioning. Frequency: recurrent.
  • Minor electrical and build quality issues — Passenger door lock actuator failures, weak 12V batteries, telemetry unit resets required, water pooling in strut towers causing corrosion. Frequency: recurrent.

Owner insights cover all generations of the Leaf.

Other Leaf model years

2025 Leaf2017 Leaf2015 Leaf2012 Leaf
Full Nissan Leaf owner reportCompare against another car