AutoUtility currently tracks 53 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2021 Nissan Leaf. Electrical System issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 31 complaints (58.5% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 2 filings cite a crash, 4 cite a fire, 1 reports one or more injuries.
- • Total NHTSA Complaints: 53 reports
- • #1 Reported Problem Area: Electrical System (31 reports • 58.5% of submitted complaints)
- • Secondary Problem Areas: Fuel & Propulsion System (8), Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (7)
- • Crash-Citing Complaints: 2 filings
- • Fire-Citing Complaints: 4 filings
- • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 1 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Most Reported Problems for 2021 Nissan Leaf
Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records
Electrical System
NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:
- Campaign #25V655000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM:TRACTION BATTERY
Fuel & Propulsion System
NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:
- Campaign #25V655000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM:TRACTION BATTERY
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech
NHTSA records list 2 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:
- Campaign #23V494000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
- Campaign #24V071000 BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
Visibility, Wipers & Glass
Powertrain & Transmission
Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2021 Nissan Leaf
Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
"A recall fix was done for the back up camera about a year ago. That was a national recall for an issue with the system. My car started the same exact issue about 3 weeks ago. No back up camera, pink or blue screen, glitchy. I contacted Nissan about it and it didn't seem like they wanted to make the..."
"Our vehicle was affected by recall 25V655 for defective battery. The vehicle was serviced at the Nissan dealer and the software update to resolve the recall was applied. Yesterday the vehicle spontaneously combusted during DC fast charging despite the software update. It appears that the software..."
"Recall for FAST CHARGE LEVEL 3 CHADEMO has been issued for over 6 months. I am advised not to fast charge due to risk of devastating fire. Very dangerous to continue to use this car in an urban setting. Buyback was denied and told to wait for a fix. No fix yet! I can't get out of Philadelphia in..."
"Level 3 quick charging was not working, and only Level 2 charging is working now. That creates a risk of not working if Level 2 charging does not work as well. Nissan issued the letter on 3/18/2026 to recall but not yet provided the detailed repair plan as of today. Please advise. [XXX] INFORMATION..."
"I own a 2021 Nissan Leaf with an open safety recall (NHTSA Recall 25V-655, Nissan Recall R25C8) issued on September 30, 2025. The recall involves a battery defect that creates a safety risk during DC fast charging (Level 3). As a result, I am unable to use public fast-charging networks such as..."
Complaint History for Nissan Leaf
Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)
| Model Year | NHTSA Complaints | Crash Reports | Safety Recalls | Detailed Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Nissan Leaf | 109 | 8 | 4 | View 2015 Problems → |
| 2016 Nissan Leaf | 36 | 1 | 4 | View 2016 Problems → |
| 2017 Nissan Leaf | 0 | 0 | 2 | View 2017 Problems → |
| 2018 Nissan Leaf | 66 | 9 | 4 | View 2018 Problems → |
| 2019 Nissan Leaf | 253 | 4 | 5 | View 2019 Problems → |
| 2020 Nissan Leaf | 162 | 1 | 6 | View 2020 Problems → |
| 2021 Nissan Leaf Current Page | 53 | 2 | 4 | Current |
| 2022 Nissan Leaf | 90 | 7 | 4 | View 2022 Problems → |
| 2023 Nissan Leaf | 19 | 6 | 3 | View 2023 Problems → |
| 2024 Nissan Leaf | 5 | 0 | 0 | View 2024 Problems → |
| 2025 Nissan Leaf | 7 | 0 | 0 | View 2025 Problems → |
| 2026 Nissan Leaf | 0 | 0 | 2 | View 2026 Problems → |
Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2021 Nissan Leaf
Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 22 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications
| Vehicle Component / System | Total Complaints | Crash Reports | Fire Reports | Reported Injury Entries | Reported Fatality Entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 20 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA category: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UNKNOWN OR OTHER,BACK OVER PREVENTION | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,LANE DEPARTURE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Back Over Prevention / Camera NHTSA category: BACK OVER PREVENTION | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING,VISIBILITY/WIPER | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY/WIPER | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,WHEELS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EXTERIOR LIGHTING | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)
Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)
Pedestrian alert sounds
NHTSA received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pedestrian alert sounds for motor vehicles. The standard applies to hybrid and electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight ra...
The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.
Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.