The Nissan Leaf in Georgia: where to charge as CHAdeMO disappears
Short answer: Georgia has 627 public chargers, 404 of them fast. CHAdeMO, the Leaf's fast connector, is on only 18 of them.
Those 18 sit mostly in Tbilisi and along the western motorway, so the coast is reachable. The mountains and the far side of Kakheti need planning before you leave.
Why this is the Leaf owner's problem specifically
Forbes Georgia wrote in March 2026 that the most commonly bought EV in the country is a used Nissan Leaf, because there are few genuinely affordable alternatives. That same car carries the rarest fast connector in Georgia. Both statements are true at once, and that is where the problem starts.
The Leaf's fast connector is CHAdeMO, a Japanese standard that spread in 2010 alongside the first Leaf. Europe went on to pick CCS2, China went with GB/T, and North America moved to Tesla's NACS. CHAdeMO followed none of those three.
Nissan itself has now left it behind. The new 2026 Leaf comes with CCS in Europe and charges at up to 150 kW, and with NACS in North America. CHAdeMO is now the connector of cars that have already been sold, and that number will not grow.
How many CHAdeMO chargers Georgia has
Our catalogue currently holds 627 public chargers, 404 of them fast DC. Only 18 of those carry a CHAdeMO connector, which is 4.5 percent of the fast network. For comparison, CCS2 is on 385 chargers and GB/T on 363.
Of those 18, 16 sit on a cabinet that also carries a CCS2 cable. Many such cabinets serve only one car at a time, so a free looking CHAdeMO cable can still be unusable when a CCS2 car is plugged into the same unit.
By operator the picture is this: E-Space 11, Tegeta 5, mart EV 1, EcoCars 1. Almost every CHAdeMO point in the country belongs to two networks, so how long the connector survives here is largely their decision.
Where they actually are
The largest cluster is in Tbilisi, with 6. The rest are strung out westwards along the motorway from Tbilisi towards Batumi. That is the good news: the coast is reachable in a Leaf, with several points on the way.
What the list does not contain matters just as much: Rustavi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Gudauri, Bakuriani, Stepantsminda. Even a large city may have no CHAdeMO at all, and a mountain resort certainly does not. On those routes you need the return leg in the battery before you set off. Each route is broken down on its own page.
Slow charging: Type 1 or Type 2
Fast charging is the Leaf's visible limit. The second, quieter one is on the AC side, and it depends on which generation the car is.
- 2011 to 2017. The AC connector is Type 1, whichever market the car was imported from. The on-board charger is 3.3 or 6.6 kW.
- 2018 onwards. The European version has Type 2; American and Japanese cars kept Type 1. The on-board charger is 6.6 kW.
In Georgia, 245 chargers carry Type 2 and only 21 carry Type 1, and those belong to EcoCars and Electrify Georgia.
The good news is that this gap is cheap to close. If the charger has a Type 2 socket rather than a tethered cable, a Type 2 to Type 1 cable is all you need. On a charger with its own attached cable it will not work. On the DC side there is no cheap equivalent at all.
How fast a Leaf really charges
The Leaf's pack has no active cooling and sheds heat into the air. One fast charge is not a problem. Several in a row is.
The effect got the name rapidgate. In an independent test a 40 kWh Leaf peaked at 47 kW and went from 10 to 80 percent in 37 minutes, but that is a cold pack. Warm, the same car is far slower: at a battery temperature of 41°C, recovering 70 percent took 54 minutes, and at 45°C it took 72.
Nissan shipped a software update in 2019 that brought those same two cases down to 40 and 48 minutes. That is an improvement, not a fix. The cooling hardware did not change, so a second and third fast charge in a row are still slow.
In Georgia this has a direct consequence. Tbilisi to Batumi in a 40 kWh Leaf takes two or three stops, and the second one will be noticeably slower than the first. In summer, with air temperatures above thirty degrees, it shows up sooner. The long distance guide breaks the route down stop by stop.
The adapter exists, but it is expensive
On the DC side there is exactly one way out: a CCS2 to CHAdeMO adapter. One is already sold in Europe, rated at 200 A, and it delivered 75 kW in real conditions to a 62 kWh Leaf e+. It costs between 600 and 1000 dollars, depending on whether you order one from China or buy it locally.
Whether that is worth it is arithmetic. If the Leaf is a city car that charges at home, that money is hard to justify. If you are often on the road, it turns 18 usable chargers into 385, which is effectively a different car.
What this means when buying
- The connector is part of the price. Between two otherwise identical Leafs, the European Type 2 car is the easier one to live with here, because 245 slow charging points open up immediately. Fast charging is equally limited for both.
- The battery still comes first. With no active cooling, a Leaf that spent its life in a hot climate wears faster. How to check one is in a separate guide, and the measured wear figures are here.
- Home charging changes everything. If you can charge at home, the shortage of CHAdeMO barely touches your week. If you cannot, those 18 points are your entire world.
None of this makes the Leaf a bad car. For city driving it remains one of the most sensible things you can buy here. Just buy it knowing that the constraint sits in the connector, not in the car.
Which charger is free right now is live in the app, and the connector filter leaves only CHAdeMO on the map. The full list is on the chargers page.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Nissan Leaf charge at a CCS charger?
Not directly. The Leaf uses CHAdeMO and a CCS2 cable does not physically fit it. The only route is a CCS2 to CHAdeMO adapter, which costs between 600 and 1000 dollars depending on whether you order one from China or buy it locally.
How many CHAdeMO chargers are there in Georgia?
18, which is 4.5 percent of the 404 fast chargers in the country. The largest cluster is in Tbilisi; the rest are mostly on the motorway from Tbilisi to Batumi.
Can a Leaf use a Type 2 charger?
A European Leaf built from 2018 can, because it has a Type 2 inlet. American and Japanese cars, and every Leaf built up to 2017, have Type 1 and need an adapter cable.
Why does a Leaf charge slower at the second stop?
Because the pack has no active cooling. The first fast charge heats it, and the car then limits power itself on the next session. This is rapidgate, and the 2019 software update only softened it.
Does the new Nissan Leaf still have CHAdeMO?
No. The 2026 Leaf uses CCS in Europe, charging at up to 150 kW, and NACS in North America. CHAdeMO is no longer fitted to new cars.
Is a Leaf worth buying in Georgia?
For city use with home charging, yes. If you cannot charge at home or you often drive long distances, having only 18 fast charging points is a serious constraint and a CCS2 car is worth considering instead.
Sources
- Forbes Georgia: the roadblocks to going electric in Georgia, March 2026
- Autocar: new Nissan Leaf review and specifications
- InsideEVs: the 2026 Leaf charging ports in North America
- Ever: measured CHAdeMO charging test of the 40 kWh Leaf
- CleanTechnica: rapidgate and the 2019 software update
- EVniculus: CCS2 to CHAdeMO adapter, specifications and measured output
More guides
See also
Map and live status are in the app
This page shows which chargers exist and where. The map, exact locations, real-time availability and route planning live in the free app.