Talking Leaf S, Rogue e-Power, and Possible Chinese EVs with Nissan Canada

• Nissan Canada invited a number of journalists to take part in a round-table discussion with its president and the Leaf’s chief marketing officer.

• The upcoming Leaf S, a Canadian exclusive in the Americas, will be the country’s most affordable electric vehicle.

• Nissan Canada says it could import some of its Chinese-developed EVs to Canada if the government provides additional clarity regarding its quota.

In the wake of the announcement of the 2027 Leaf S, a new entry-level model that will make the Leaf the most affordable electric vehicle in Canada, Nissan Canada invited a few journalists to exchange with its president and the Leaf’s chief marketing officer.

This discussion gave us the opportunity to learn a bit more about the soon-to-arrive Nissan Leaf S, the automaker’s strategy with this product, as well as the upcoming Rogue e-Power, and possible Chinese EVs.

Leaf S

To begin with, Nissan Canada CEO Steve Rhind and the Leaf’s chief marketing officer Abhishek Bhatia talked about expected sales volumes for the newest member of the Leaf family.

Despite being the lowest-priced electric vehicle on the Canadian market thanks to its $34,998 MSRP, Nissan only expects about 10% of all 2027 Leaf sales to come from the S trim level, mostly because of its lower range.

Indeed, this model is rated at 341 km of range due to its smaller 53 kWh battery, while the other 2027 Leaf trim levels are rated at up to 488 km thanks to a 75-kWh battery.

This shorter range, identical to that of the previous-generation Leaf Plus, makes the 2027 Leaf S better suited as a second vehicle or a dedicated commuter, something the automaker readily admits.

Nevertheless, the company says it will have enough flexibility to match the demand for this model, so if it proves significantly more popular than expected, Nissan will be able to supply more of them.

Nissan Canada has reportedly been working behind the scenes for two years to bring this more affordable version of the new Leaf to market, and the delay between the launch of the third-generation Leaf and the new S model can be explained by a lack of availability in Japan, where this electric compact crossover is manufactured.

Interestingly, the 2027 Leaf S will be a Canadian exclusive in the Americas, as it won’t be available in the United States, Mexico, or the entirety of South America.

Of course, Nissan expects the addition of the Leaf S to boost its electrified sales despite the low expected take rate for this specific model. Therefore, 2027 should be a great year for the small electric car, as its sales have already increased significantly since the arrival of the third generation, with the Leaf posting its second-best sales month ever in Canada in August.

Like many electric vehicles, the Leaf S will be available in greater numbers in Québec and British Columbia, the two provinces with the highest governmental EV rebates, but Nissan says buyers everywhere across the country will be able to get their hands on this new entry-level EV.

Speaking of incentives, they bring the customer price of the 2027 Leaf S to just under $30,000 nationally, and down to $27,998 in Québec.

While Nissan Canada doesn’t seem particularly interested in engaging in a price war with its competitors, most notably the Chevrolet Bolt, it says buyers should expect to pay a similar price for the 2027 Leaf S across the entire model year, despite the Quebec incentive coming to an end and the federal incentive reducing on January 1^st.

Rogue e-Power

While the Leaf S was the main focus of our discussion, the upcoming Rogue e-Power, set to launch this fall, also featured prominently.

Launching a new generation of the brand’s most popular model in Canada, the 2027 Rogue e-Power will also bring Nissan’s hybrid technology to North America for the first time.

Unlike traditional hybrid models, e-Power uses only the electric motors to drive the wheels, with the gasoline engine acting exclusively as a generator. According to the automaker, this combines the advantages of electric vehicles (smoothness, instant power delivery…) with the lack of range anxiety that can only be achieved with the presence of an internal combustion engine.

While this type of powertrain will be new from Nissan in North America, e-Power is not a new technology in itself. Indeed, the system we will find in the 2027 Rogue is the third generation of this technology, which is already installed in more than 2 million vehicles driving in Europe and Japan.

While few specifics were given, Nissan Canada executives have said that the Rogue’s e-Power system has been tuned specifically for North America in order to improve its fuel efficiency on long highway drives that are typical of Canadian and American commutes.

Canadian pricing for the Rogue e-Power should be announced before the end of October, but we already know that it will slightly undercut the current Toyota RAV4 hybrid in order to attract potential buyers. For reference, the entry-level 2026 RAV4 LE hybrid is priced from $40,504.

Thanks to this strategy, Nissan Canada expects sales of the Rogue e-Power to add to sustained sales of the gasoline-powered model, which has also shown strong performance in 2026 so far.

The Possibility of Chinese EVs

Of course, we also asked Nissan Canada’s representatives what their stance on Chinese EVs was, and unsurprisingly, the answer was fairly non-committal.

Indeed, the company is reportedly evaluating which models, if any, from its Chinese joint venture, Dongfeng Nissan, it could import under the Canadian government’s quota of Chinese electrified vehicles.

According to Mr. Rhind, the main obstacle preventing Nissan Canada from importing Chinese models at the moment is the lack of clarity in the way Ottawa will allocate the quota among automakers.

At the moment, the framework allows for 49,000 Chinese electrified vehicles to be sold in Canada under reduced tariffs each year under a first-come, first-served basis.

While this number is set to increase each year, the lack of quota attribution system strongly favours automakers who already produce Canadian homologated models in China, such as Tesla, Polestar, and Lincoln.

In other words, Nissan Canada can’t justify going through the process of homologating Dongfeng Nissan models for sale here without knowing how many of them they could be allowed to sell before the base 100% tariff kicks in once the quota is reached.

Therefore, the automaker is asking for more clarity from the government in this regard before it commits to bringing some of its Chinese-developed and manufactured electric or plug-in hybrid models.

U.S. tariffs

Finally, we also got to hear a bit on how the ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States has affected Nissan Canada’s operations over the last year and a half.

While the company would obviously prefer a return to the previous tariff-free trade environment between the two countries, something it believes to be unlikely, Nissan Canada has been less significantly affected than many of its rivals.

Indeed, 80% of Nissan’s sales in Canada come from models manufactured in Japan or Mexico, which shields them from Canadian counter tariffs on some vehicles assembled in the United States.

Inversely, the company doesn’t operate an assembly plant in Canada, which means it hasn’t had to face American tariffs on Canadian-made cars either.

At the moment, only the Pathfinder, the Frontier, and the Murano are manufactured in the United States for the Canadian market, in addition to the Infiniti QX60 and QX65.

Thankfully for the company, Nissan Canada has been able to source its entire supply of Rogues, its most popular model, from Japan since 2022. Previously, Canadian Rogues came from both Japan and the United States.

The 2027 Nissan Leaf S is currently making its way to Canadian dealerships, and more details about the Rogue e-Power are expected next month, when we will be able to get behind the wheel of this eagerly anticipated crossover for the first time.