This Nissan Leaf has 501 pound-feet of torque and AWD, previewing future Nissan EVs

The electric Nissan Ariya Concept made its big debut at the Tokyo Motor Show a couple of days ago, but the electric news spout from Nissan isn’t done flowing yet. Behold: an all-wheel drive twin-motor Nissan Leaf. It has 304 horsepower and a stonking 501 pound-feet of torque from its two electric motors.

Unfortunately, the Nissan Leaf that’s in production is not slated to receive this epic powertrain, but it does offer a direct preview of what we’ll be seeing in all-wheel drive electric Nissans of the future. In fact, we’re willing to wager that this powertrain is close to what we’ll see in a production version of the Ariya Concept — Nissan has already shown a version of this car to dealers privately.

The system uses regenerative rear motor braking to supplement front motor regenerative braking. This helps reduce pitch and dive while slowing down, something you and your passengers will be thankful for. Nissan also claims that it helps the overall ride comfort on rough roads as the motor control system is able to minimize irregular movements in a split second. The car’s chassis, suspension and damping are certainly still the main factor here, though. 

Independent brake control is claimed to further “maximize the cornering force generated by each tire.” Nissan says this allows you to continue tracing the corner as you’d expect, with less steering input needed. Nissan has high hopes for this powertrain and chassis tech being developed in the Leaf Plus test car pictured here.

“The new electric-drive four-wheel-control technology now being developed integrates Nissan’s electric propulsion and 4WD control technologies with our chassis control technology to achieve a huge leap in acceleration, cornering and braking performance, on par with the latest sports cars,” says Takao Asami, the senior vice president for research and advanced engineering at Nissan.

A fast electric crossover doesn’t exactly scream “sports car” to us, but it’s still great to see the enthusiasm for developing a car that’s fun to drive. Perhaps we’ll see a powertrain like this in a small sports car somewhere down the line. We’re definitely fans of the power numbers Nissan says its system is capable of, and we hope to see similar figures when Nissan finally reveals a new production EV.