Page 42 - Motor Trend (April 2020)

COMPARISON I Kia Niro Eco Electric vs. Nissan Leaf Plus SL vs. Tesla Model 3

Free-Range

WHAT IF YOUR AFFORDABLE EV

ALSO HAS TO BE YOUR ONLY CAR?

hy are you making this so
complicated?” my editor asked. Chargeageddon! The good news:
People are using Teslas for travel. It’s
“Remember how superior the
also sometimes the bad news if you
“WModel 3 was over the Nissan Leaf need to stop to use a Supercharger.
Plus and Kia Niro EV during our Car of
the Year testing? The Tesla will easily win
this. It’s simple.”
He’s right, it wins this. The Tesla is
slam-dunk the best driver of these three. PHOTO: STEVEN CONROY
But there’s far more to this story
than that one angle. In the real world,
very little about electric cars is simple.
Especially now that affordable ones with Thanksgiving’s madhouse travel days. I’m using the example of
bigger batteries and fast charging rates— (Search “Steven Conroy Supercharger.”) Chargeageddon to rattle us out of our
abetted by stories of a spreading web of When Steve shot it, there were at least routine of seeing an EV roundup as just
Level 3 chargers—are naturally causing 16 Teslas waiting to plug in at its 14 another car-versus-car hardware compar-
folks to rethink whether an EV should be permanent chargers (with even more ison test. All those Teslas in the video
their primary transport. umbilicaled to a giant Megapack battery aren’t local-limited secondary commuter
For instance, consider the YouTube that Tesla trailered in to feed the flood cars. They’re wearing the yokes of
video taken by Steven Conroy at the of demand). primary, go-anywhere transportation.
Tesla Supercharger station outside the
Madonna Inn along Route 101 between Nissan Leaf $44,695 Tesla Model 3 $42,690
Plus SL Standard Range Plus
L.A. and San Francisco back during

42 MOTORTREND.COM APRIL 2020