Nissan Leaf review

The upper two trims let you swerve all-black upholstery and brighten things up with a blue and light grey combo. That includes a band of cloth around the top of the doors and dash. Everything else is fine soft plastics except, oddly, the little panel that houses the forward/reverse buttons and drive mode selector. The late-'80s Bluebird wants that back please.

The seats don't give you much lateral support but otherwise the driving position is good. The phone charge pad is half-hidden under the armrest. Good for two reasons: it won't go flying if you take a corner with enthusiasm, and you won't be distracted by it. You have wireless phone mirroring anyway.

The top version has a Bose system, which sounds like Bose systems do – bass-forward, spacious if not terribly plausible, but fun. A pair of speakers in the driver's headrest whisper sweet navigation in your ear without bothering everyone else.

Back seat room is good with the usual foot-space proviso – front seats need to be raised a bit. If you're on the taller side you might find you have to give up a bit of legroom so that junior's car seat isn't wedged up against the backrest.

Nissan has done its usual thing with big bottle holders in the doors and so on, although the cubby in the centre console is hardly a sinkhole. The 437-litre boot has dividers, hooks and underfloor stowage. The Leaf's key rivals are slightly more accommodating.

How well does the interface work?

Excellently. You can control a huge amount from the steering wheel – something most manufacturers have criminally overlooked in recent years.

A pair of buttons gives choice of access to all car settings in the driver's binnacle, and a second button switches the same navigation pad – four-way and an OK button – to move around the touchscreen. So you seldom need to reach out and touch it. That's way better than a touchscreen-only system. Safer too, we reckon.

A Google-based nav and comms setup means an EV route planner to figure out where you might need to stop for a charge and how long it'll take, with automatic battery preconditioning as you approach the stop. This kind of tech is the very best of its kind.

This is all very positive. Do some nit-picking for me.

Er... all models get a 360-degree surround view camera, but the digital Leaf supplanted in the middle of it looks like it's been copied over from a Sega Mega Drive.

There's a touch-sensitive panel of climate functions beneath the screen, but they're fiddly and some of the finer controls have been dumped into the screen. Whoopsie.

Oh, and the key is a proper pain in the bum. Not because you've sat on it: if you've got it in your pocket it'll unlock and lock the vehicle every time you walk past, even if you have no intention of getting in. And it's a double click to open the back doors, so an extra step for loading children. Oh joy.