Nissan Leaf

First generation (2010) The Leaf turned the electric car into an ordinary family hatchback you could buy at a Nissan dealer. Deliveries began in the US and Japan in December 2010, and Nissan unveiled it as the world's first mass-market electric and zero-emission car. It won both the 2011 World Car of the Year and European Car of the Year, and it stayed the world's best-selling plug-in electric car until the Tesla Model 3 passed it in early 2020. By February 2022 global sales across two generations had reached 577,000, proof that a mainstream maker could sell electric cars at scale.