Leaked photos of the forthcoming 2018 Nissan Leaf did not inspire confidence among fans that Nissan will overcome Tesla

A Twitter user named Blue Miata, who claimed to be working at a Nissan-related workplace tweeted a few blurry pictures of what is thought to be the next Nissan Leaf.

“I discovered the new Leaf on the inspection line at the Oppama plant,” he said in two tweets

Seeing leaked photos online of upcoming cars is something common; however, seeing images from the factories where they are built is tremendously unusual.

In 2014, Nissan Leaf was the top-selling electric car in the US; on the other hand, it has fallen behind Tesla’s Model S and X and the Chevy Bolt.

Even so, the Leaf is one of the highest-volume electric cars to have ever been sold, and Nissan is strongly putting its bet on the upcoming refreshed model to take on both the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model 3. All three are in a race to becoming the first electric car that breaks through on a mass scale. To make things even more competitive, Nissan will also add the most advanced driver assistance system yet. Moreover, the Leaf is said to have an all-electric range of 200-300 miles.

However, fans were not entirely happy. Most of them have been disappointed to see that the new Leaf looks nothing like the car of the future, but more like previous mass-market vehicles such as Micra and Note.

“Why are you not going to put out [something] like this? Why would you make that so ordinary?” one user asked, posting photos of Nissan’s IDS concept car