From the early stages of development, one word was embedded in the minds of the planning and design team members: joy. Designers and engineers looked to add excitement, whimsy and unexpected delight during daily use. For instance, upon approach, owners are greeted with a ‘smile' on the front fascia (black accent from under the front emblem up through the daytime running lights). There's also a sense of hospitality (called omotenashi in Japanese) from features that help make journeys seamless and fun such as the flush door handles that emerge in unison.

The numbers 2 and 3 can read in Japanese as "ni" and "san", phonetically creating "Nissan". All around the car, you can find examples of this with two vertical and three horizontal lines such as on the charge port door, wheels, taillamps and several other interior accents. Can you find them all?

Designers drew inspiration from a traditional Japanese motif of clouds called kasumi monyo (霞文様) meaning "stylized picture". In Japanese art, they are represented by rounded rectangles that connect to one another. On the all-new LEAF, they have been subtlety applied to interior panels such as the center console. The available Dimming Panoramic Roof also took inspiration by the way it transitions from clear to opaque in layered stages, like clouds moving in the sky.

Stepping inside, owners can adjust the available ambient lighting to best suit their day or mood. There are 64 colors to choose from; and five presets the Nissan design team developed with digital tailoring in mind, including one preset that adjusts the lighting and the dual display screens to change depending on the time of day; from a morning sunburst, brighter display around noon, and balanced brightness levels for the evening.