Nissan LEAF Awarded In 2020 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study

The 2017 Nissan LEAF is the only electric car to receive a dependability award in the 2020 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study.

The 2020 U.S. Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS) by J.D. Power for the first time lists an all-electric model as a segment-level winner: Nissan LEAF won the compact car category.

The three-year-in-service VDS study is based on owners' survey about their 2017 model year vehicles, which means that the award is for the 2017 model in particular (previous generation LEAF).

The 2017 LEAF with a score of 83 problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100) is:

the first BEV to win a segment-level award

the top-performing non-premium vehicle

and wins the compact car segment with a10 point advantage*

* lower score reflecting fewer problems per vehicle

** the industry average for all types of cars is 134 problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100)

"Nissan LEAF ranked as the top performing non-premium vehicle and at the top of the compact car segment with a score of 83 problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100). The Nissan LEAF is the first pure electric vehicle to win an overall segment award in the history of the VDS study.

Mark Swenson, vice president, Total Customer Satisfaction, Nissan North America, Inc said:

"The Vehicle Dependability Study is a great validation of a vehicle's true quality because it comes after three years of real world, everyday use. Nissan LEAF also recently won a Kelley Blue Book '5 Year Cost to Own Award' for the third consecutive year among electric vehicles"

Further analyzing the 2020 VDS we found that two more BEVs were mentioned on the list:

Chevrolet Bolt EV was 3rd in the Small Car segment

BMW i3 was 2nd in the Small Premium Car segment

J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS)

The general finding for 2020 is that car dependability is improving:

"Vehicle dependability improves—but at a slower rate: The industry average in 2020 is 134 PP100, which is an improvement of just 2 PP100 from 2019. (However, in 2019, there was an improvement of 6 PP100 from 2018.) Despite the slowing rate of improvement, 2020 marks automakers’ best performance in the history of the study. Dependability gains driven by crossovers and SUVs: Crossovers and SUVs still have slightly more problems than cars, but the gap is narrowing. On average, owners of crossovers/SUVs experience 134 PP100, compared with 127 PP100 by car owners. This 7 PP100 gap has narrowed considerably from 2019. With crossovers/SUVs now accounting for more than 50% of new vehicle sales annually, it is critical that automakers achieve the same level of quality and dependability as for cars."

Dave Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power said:

“Despite the increased adoption of complex vehicle technology, dependability continues to improve. There’s no question that three-year-old vehicles today are better built and more dependable than same-age vehicles were in previous years. However, the rapid introduction of technology is putting increased pressure on dependability, so it would not be surprising to see problem levels plateau, or even increase, over the next few years.”

2017 Nissan LEAF

See more here: 2020 U.S. Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS) results.