Clean Feeds
Home › Recalls › Nissan › LEAF › 2013

2013 Nissan LEAF recalls, complaints and safety ratings

There are 5 US recalls for the 2013 Nissan LEAF, and 5 in Canada. Owners filed 81 complaints with NHTSA, most often about service brakes. Its best NHTSA overall crash rating is 4 stars.

5US recalls
0urgent recalls
81owner complaints
4★overall crash rating

Is your car affected?

Check by VIN to confirm the exact model and see every recall for it.

Recalls are issued for a make, model and model year. Whether the repair has already been done on one specific car is known only to its manufacturer and dealers. Check your vehicle's official status at nhtsa.gov/recalls or with a dealer.

US recalls (5)

Equipment: other, owners/service/other manual

2023-04-26 · campaign 23V296000 · 94,343 vehicles

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2013-2017 LEAF vehicles. The Owner's Manual instructions for defroster operation are incorrect and may result in reduced defroster performance under specific conditions. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 103, "Windshield Defrosting and Defogging Systems."

Risk and remedy

Risk: Reduced defroster performance can limit visibility out of the windshield, increasing the risk of a crash.

Remedy: Nissan will mail an addendum with updated instructions on how to operate the defroster, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed May 26, 2023. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R23A1.

Air bags: sensor, occupant classification

2016-04-26 · campaign 16V244000 · 3,296,947 vehicles

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano Hybrid, and Chevrolet City Express, 2014-2015 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles. In these vehicles, the front seat passenger Occupant Classification System (OCS) may incorrectly classify an adult passenger as a child or classify the seat as empty despite it being occupied. As a result, the passenger frontal air bag may be turned off and not deploy in the event of a crash.

Risk and remedy

Risk: If the passenger frontal air bag does not deploy as intended in the event of a crash, the passenger is at an increased risk of injury.

Remedy: Nissan will notify their owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge. Interim notices were sent to owners on May 31, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.

Service brakes

2016-02-29 · campaign 16V119000 · 46,859 vehicles

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 LEAF vehicles manufactured November 19, 2012, to July 31, 2015. During very cold temperatures, the relay inside the electronic brake booster may freeze, requiring the driver to exert more effort to slow the vehicle down.

Risk and remedy

Risk: If the brake relay fails, longer distances or additional brake effort would be required to stop the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.

Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the Intelligent Brake Control Unit software, free of charge. The recall began on March 28, 2016. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.

Electrical system: software

2014-03-25 · campaign 14V138000 · 989,701 vehicles

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2014 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, and Sentra, model year 2013 NV200 (aka Taxi) and Infiniti JX35 and model year 2014 Infiniti Q50 and QX60 vehicles. In the affected vehicles, the occupant classification system (OCS) software may incorrectly classify the passenger seat as empty, when it is occupied by an adult.

Risk and remedy

Risk: If the OCS does not detect an adult occupant in the passenger seat, the passenger airbag would be deactivated. Failure of the passenger airbag to deploy during a crash (where deployment is warranted) could increase the risk of injury to the passenger.

Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will update the OCS software, free of charge. The recall began on April 14, 2014. Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.

Air bags

2013-03-01 · campaign 13V069000 · 82,038 vehicles

Nissan is recalling certain model year 2013 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, Sentra, and Infiniti JX35 vehicles. Sensors within the passenger Occupant Detection System (ODS) may have been manufactured out of specification. This may cause the system to malfunction and permanently suppress the passenger airbag.

Risk and remedy

Risk: If the vehicle is involved in a crash necessitating airbag deployment and the passenger airbag is suppressed, there may be an increased risk of personal injury.

Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the ODS sensors and replace them as neccessary, free of charge. The recall began on May 6, 2013. Owners may contact Nissan Customer Service at 1-800-647-7261.

Canadian recalls (5)

Show 5 Canadian recalls

Heater and defroster

2023-04-03 · campaign 2023-225

Issue: When the temperature is below -10° C, the defroster may not work properly if you follow the instructions in the owner's manual and use the maximum fan speed. As a result, you may not be able to defrost the windshield. Note: This is an expansion of Transport Canada recall 2023-045. Safety Risk: A windshield that cannot be defogged or defrosted can reduce visibility and increase the risk of a crash. Corrective Actions: Nissan will notify owners by mail and supply an addendum to the owner's manual that provides the correct settings for using the defroster when the temperature is below -10° C.

Brakes

2019-02-01 · campaign 2019-044

Issue: When the car is parked in very cold temperatures for a long time, a relay in the brake system may freeze. If this happens, multiple brake warnings will stay on in the instrument cluster after the car is started. The driver may also notice a hard brake pedal. If the car is driven, this could cause an increase in stopping distance. Safety Risk: An increase in stopping distance could create the risk of a crash. Corrective Actions: The company will mail owners a letter explaining this problem. The letter will describe how the brake warnings work. Drivers should not drive the car if the warnings stay on. Nissan will provide a 4 year/80,000 km warranty extension to repair the problem with relay freezing.

Seats and restraints

2016-04-25 · campaign 2016-179

On certain vehicles, a defect in the occupant classification system could allow an adult sitting in the front passenger seat to be classified as a child or an “empty seat”. This would suppress the airbag, which could increase the risk of injury in a crash. Correction: For affected Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue and Sentra vehicles, dealers will reprogram the airbag control unit and the occupant classification system control unit. For affected Leaf, NV200, Pathfinder, Q50 and JX35/QX60 vehicles, dealers will replace the occupant classification system electronic control unit.

Brakes

2016-02-29 · campaign 2016-096 · 647 vehicles

On certain vehicles, when the vehicle is parked in cold temperatures for a prolonged period of time, the relay inside the electronic brake booster may freeze. This may result in increased brake pedal effort, which could increase stopping distances, potentially resulting in a crash causing injury and/or damage property. Correction: An Electric Vehicle certified dealer will reprogram the electrically-driven Intelligent Brake Control Unit software. Note: If this condition were present, a brake warning lamp would illuminate when the vehicle is first started to alert the operator of the issue.

Airbag

2014-03-25 · campaign 2014-093

On certain vehicles, the front passenger seat occupant classification system software may incorrectly classify the passenger seat as empty, when it is occupied by an adult. If this occurs, the passenger airbag would be deactivated without the illumination of the airbag warning lamp. Failure of the passenger airbag to deploy during a crash (where deployment is warranted) could increase the risk of injury to the seat occupant. Correction: Dealers will reprogram the occupant classification system.

Owner complaints (81)

Owners filed 81 complaints with NHTSA about the 2013 Nissan LEAF (11 crashes, 1 fires, 4 injuries reported). Among 17 model years of this model, it ranks #6 for the most complaints (median 57).

Most-reported problemComplaints
Service brakes32
Electrical system18
Air bags17
Unknown or other10
Vehicle speed control5
Fuel/propulsion system4
Visibility/wiper4
Wheels4

Crash test ratings

NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings for the 2013 Nissan LEAF.

VersionOverallFrontalSideRollover
2013 Nissan Leaf 5 HB FWD4★4★4★4★

Fuel economy

EPA ratings for each 2013 Nissan LEAF version.

VersionCity MPGHighway MPGCombinedYearly fuel cost
Leaf Automatic (A1)129102115$650
Need this data in your app?
Recalls, complaints, crash ratings and fuel economy as a JSON API. Decode up to 50 VINs per call and get a daily feed of new recalls.
Explore the API →

Sources: NHTSA recalls, complaints and 5-Star Safety Ratings, US EPA fuel economy and Transport Canada's Vehicle Recalls Database (contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada). Recalls updated 2026-10-30.