What a Nissan Leaf actually costs per kilometre in Canterbury

RUCs, home charging rates, depreciation and WoF costs broken down against a comparable petrol import for Canterbury drivers doing real kilometres.

The Nissan Leaf was, for a few years, one of those purchases that felt clever. Buy used, charge at home, skip the petrol station entirely, and watch the running costs stay low enough that the higher purchase price eventually made sense on paper. That calculation has shifted. Road user charges arrived for light EVs in April 2024, electricity pricing has been anything but stable, and the second-hand Leaf market has softened in ways that affect the real cost of ownership rather than just the sticker.

So here is what the numbers actually look like for a Canterbury driver putting 15,000 kilometres a year on a 2018 Nissan Leaf 40kWh, bought today for around $18,000 to $20,000, compared to a 2018 Toyota Corolla 2.0 litre petrol import in the same price bracket.

Fuel and charging costs

A 2018 Leaf 40kWh returns somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 kilometres per kilowatt-hour in mild conditions. In a Canterbury winter, with the heater running and a battery pack that has seen five or six years of cycling, real-world efficiency sits closer to 6.0 km/kWh on cold mornings. Home charging on a standard overnight rate from one of the main retailers runs roughly 28 to 33 cents per kWh depending on your plan and whether you are on a controlled or uncontrolled tariff. Call it 30 cents as a working number.

At 6.2 km/kWh and 30 cents per unit, you are paying about 4.8 cents per kilometre in electricity. Add the RUC rate of 2.3 cents per kilometre and the Leaf's running cost on energy and road charges comes to approximately 7.1 cents per kilometre.

The Corolla 2.0 litre returns around 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres in mixed driving, which is honest rather than optimistic for a car being used as a genuine daily. At $2.70 per litre for 91 octane, that is just over 20 cents per kilometre in fuel alone. No RUCs apply to petrol vehicles. The Leaf wins this comparison by a margin that is still significant, roughly 13 cents per kilometre, which across 15,000 kilometres a year works out to about $1,950 in annual savings on energy and road charges alone.

That number is real. The Leaf still makes sense on running costs. The question is whether everything else cancels the advantage.

Depreciation and purchase cost

This is where the Leaf's story gets uncomfortable. A 2018 Leaf 40kWh that was worth $24,000 to $26,000 two years ago has dropped to $18,000 to $20,000 now, and the direction of travel is not encouraging. Newer EVs arriving into the used market, persistent concern about battery degradation on older packs, and the end of the Clean Car Discount in 2023 removing a downstream incentive for buyers have all pushed values down. Dealers are pricing them to move.

The 2018 Corolla in the same bracket has held more steadily, partly because petrol car demand has not collapsed the way some predicted and partly because the Corolla is genuinely hard to kill. Depreciation on both, from today's purchase price over three years of Canterbury ownership, probably lands within $1,000 to $2,000 of each other at current trajectory, with the Leaf carrying slightly more downside risk if battery health becomes a negotiation point at resale.

If you are financing the purchase, the slightly lower Leaf price helps offset depreciation difference. If you are paying cash and care about what the car is worth in 2027, the Corolla carries less uncertainty.

Servicing and the WoF picture

Both cars move to annual WoF inspections after three years, so that cost is equal from here. Servicing is where the Leaf genuinely wins. No oil changes, no timing chain, no cooling system service on the engine side. Budget around $200 to $300 a year for tyre rotation, brake inspection and cabin filter on a well-maintained Leaf. The Corolla needs oil changes, filter replacements and periodic brake fluid and coolant service. Call it $500 to $700 a year at a reputable independent.

The servicing gap favours the Leaf by roughly $300 a year. Combined with the energy cost saving, the Leaf is ahead by around $2,250 annually on running costs.

That sounds decisive. And for someone doing reliable home charging, with modest cold-weather range requirements and no anxiety about a battery pack that might be holding 85 to 90 percent of original capacity, it probably is decisive.

For someone commuting 60 kilometres each way from Darfield or doing regular runs to Akaroa in July, the equation looks different. Range in Canterbury winter conditions on an older 40kWh pack is not the 270 kilometres the badge suggests. It is closer to 180 to 200 kilometres in the cold, and that changes how the car gets used, which changes how convenient the ownership actually is.

The Leaf costs less to run per kilometre. That has not changed. What has changed is that the margin is smaller than it was, the purchase risk is higher, and the petrol alternative is no longer as easy to dismiss as it once was.