What even is a "Hot Hatch"? A Leaf is a hatchback and it is pretty fast with a 0 - 60 time of 7.4 seconds.
I bet 9 times out of 10 a Leaf 40 would be faster 0 - 30 mph at the lights than nearly any other hot hatch. Even in my Leaf 24kWh I am faster off the line than most manual cars. I have been faster off the line and then up to the speed limit than numerous "Hot hatches" that were looking to get in front of me. Unless you are sitting revving the engine like Vin Diesel at the lights, a Leaf driver, or any other EV, will be a car length in front before a petrol cars rear wheels cross the painted line just by flooring the accelerator pedal. You can't deny it.
For me personally, I think it is way more fun being able to get great acceleration every time with nearly no effort away from the lights, than it is occasionally going fast down a motorway slip road.
Sure you don't get the bangs and pops but what good does that do you when you are being out paced at every traffic light stop by a Granny driving an EV and you can only go 70MPH on the motorway anyway!
If you can charge at home then it is also really cheap to run as well. It costs me about 3p a mile currently.
It's just a suggestion though, but I think it would be a mistake to just instantly dismiss it solely because it doesn't come with go faster stripes, doesn't have ST or R after the car name or have dual exhausts in the middle.
The Leaf also has the benefit of not having middle aged passers by looking at you and shaking their heads when you are sitting there creating a racket kidding on you are driving a Ferrari! Mind you teenagers might think you are cool if that is who you are trying to impress!
