A few hiccups are causing Nissan to reconsider its initial sales target for the all new 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle. Throughout the year, the automaker was positive it would sell all 20,000 units allocated for the United States and now it appears that only half that amount will make it out of showroom.
In a report by Automotive News, Nissan vice president of sales Al Castignetti estimates 10,000 to 12,000 first model year Leafs will be sold. The sales issues could be traced as far back before the Leaf even made it to Nissan showrooms. In April 2010, Nissan set up a reservation system for those interested consumers; they were to submit a $99 deposit online reservation which had great success. Nissan had to stop accepting reservations in September when it received deposits for the 20,000 allocated units. Only about half of the reservations made actually resulted in sales.
According to Nissan spokesperson Katherine Zachary, there are several reasons for the low number of sales including Nissan receiving reservations from residents who live in cities where the Leaf wasn’t available. The Leaf was only available in seven states when it first went on sale in December of 2010. It is possible consumers are unsettled or are unable to install the required charging station in their home and the limited number of public charging stations. Lastly, Nissan halted production for a few weeks following complications from the March 2011 catastrophe in Japan.
The sales complications hasn’t slowed Nissan’s attempt to put the Leaf in the spotlight. In April, the automaker’s performance arm NISMO revealed the Leaf RC, a racetrack version of the passenger car complete with a low-slung carbon-fiber body and mid-mounted powertrain.
Read more: http://wot.motortrend.com/nissan-leaf-miss-sales-target-83883.html#ixzz1OVJw7Lrf
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