Nissan Leaf years to avoid: the early ones

Based on 34,631 real MOT tests from DVSA records. Each year is compared against every other car first registered the same year — otherwise the numbers would only tell you that older cars fail more, which you knew.

The short answer

Avoid 2013 to 2016. The worst is the 2013, which fails its MOT 36% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2020 is the strongest, failing 29% less often than average.

Found a Nissan Leaf you like?

Averages tell you what to expect. Its registration tells you what actually happened — every MOT, every advisory, and whether the mileage adds up.

Every Leaf model year

Shaded rows are the years that differ most from other cars of the same age — worse, better.

MOT failure rate by registration year for the Nissan Leaf
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2013 Worst	1,273	34.6%	36% worse
2014	3,058	30.5%	34% worse
2015	4,022	26.3%	35% worse
2016	4,002	19.9%	18% worse
2017	4,976	13.8%	about average
2018	5,102	10.4%	about average
2019	5,022	7.7%	25% better
2020	7,176	6.5%	29% better

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Nissan Leaf, grouped by the year the car was first registered. Retests are excluded, so a car that failed and was fixed still counts as a failure. Each year's rate is then divided by the rate for all cars first registered that year — so 120 means 20% more failures than its contemporaries, not 20% more than a brand new car.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.