As a result, total charging time for the EV will be reduced by nearly half, to around four hours.

Pierre Loing, Nissan's product planning chief for the Americas, said: ‘This will be a big step forward for the Leaf addressing concerns over the range and charging time.

‘We are also looking a easier ways to charge the car when people are at work. The LEAF is fine so long as the range can get you to work and back but if we can make charging at work easier then it opens the car up to more customers.’

The 2013 LEAF will also include a new, energy-efficient heating system and a new drive mode that increases regenerative braking during deceleration.

The Leaf and its battery is built at Nissan's US factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, while production of the car at the company's UK plant at Sunderland is due to begin this spring.