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What constitutes a classic or collectable car is highly subjective.
Lets discuss some key factors.
Rarity: Currently they are extremely common.
Historical significance: As the first very high volume, mass market EV, the original Leaf is likely to be historically significant.
Demand: I don't expect there will be much demand for classic leaf's in the future. As with all Classic car's, they are essentially obsolete machinery, to the appeal largely comes from nostalgia, and (as a 2014 leaf owner), I don't think there is really a heap to be nostalgic about. We basically just use it as a town car, and take our our larger car on any longer trips.
Survival Rates: This one is more interesting. The ZE0 leaf's ended production in 2013, and AZE0 in 2017. I think the bulk of these cars will have a 20 year or less lifespan (largely due to the main battery, the rest of the car is fine). So come 2037, the Original shape leaf's will start to become quite rare as they exit the fleet. That's only 13 years away.
Well Maintained: Suspect it is going to be hard to find a ZE0 leaf which is pristine. The combination of their low value, and general use as low cost commuters / grocery getters, means most of them are somewhat rough.
Age: For the leaf this is more to do with rarity, you need to wait long enough them to become rare.
My take is that only the original (ideally 2011) leaf, is the only one that has any future classic value. The basis for this value is historical significance of the leaf as the first mass market BEV. While the 2nd generation leaf is undoubtedly a better car, there is nothing historically significant about it, and given it is more modern (and given how the batteries are holding up a heap better than the 24 / 30 kWh leaf's), it will take at least a decade longer before it starts to become rare due to poor survival rates.
If you want a classic leaf to be operational, you will need to fund a main battery swap at some point, The below table has a price for a brand new (and modern) battery with CATL sourced cells.
An couple of month old price list (assume excl GST) from hybrid batteries for leaf battery upgrades:
While as a general rule, classic / collectable car's are something that was special / highly desirable when they are new, there are exceptions like Pre BMW mini's, Morris Minors etc.
But you are fighting against how the leaf is quite common (over 650,000 built), and how being Affordable is kind of the point (the 3rd letter in the backronym is Affordable).
That said, there is no doubt that the Tesla Roadster is already a collectable car:
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/tesla/roadster/
I was going to suggest tesla's, either the model S (first long range mainstream EV), or Model 3 (first EV to pass 1,000,000 sales), but both have the issue, that they are still in production (Model S is LHD only now), with their original body shape, so you are going to need to wait many decades before these become rare.
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Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler
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