News : Nissan notches up 10,000 European Leaf sales

....and that's 10,000 Nissan Leafs sold
….and that’s 10,000 Nissan Leafs sold

The world’s best selling electric car, the Washington-built Nissan Leaf has notched up an important landmark, by reaching 10,000 sales in Europe. A nurse from Paris will be using hers on visits to patients, as well as driving her family in it at the weekends. She picked up her Leaf from the Mantes-la-Jolie dealership near Paris.

Mrs Lailler bought the 100 per cent electric family car after being impressed on the test drive: ‘I purchased the car because its low running costs really make sense for my work. I needed a proper family car and I wanted a zero emission vehicle to replace my diesel hatchback – the Nissan Leaf was the best choice. My family were reluctant to get an electric vehicle, but after the test drive my husband told me he wanted it to drive to work. He will not get the keys from me easily though!’

The Nissan Leaf went on sale in Europe in March 2011 in a handful of markets and is now available across the region as the demand for electric vehicles increases. Nissan Europe Director of Electric Vehicle, Jean-Pierre Diernaz said: ‘This is an important moment for electric cars in Europe and comes at a time where we are seeing a sales momentum building for the Nissan LEAF across the region. In March we sold over 1000 LEAF models, which was the best month since the car was launched. In April we were the second best selling car overall in Norway.’

The revised Nissan Leaf, which is being built at Nissan’s Sunderland factory will go on sale across Europe in June, with over 100 changes and upgrades inspired by real life customer feedback.

310513nis

Keith Adams

26 Comments

  1. Wot he said.

    People will diss electric cars, but the technology is not yet mature, and with ever improving battery capacity, very fast charging, and various much lower cost battery technologies being prototyped I don’t think it will be all that many years before electric cars become viable for an increasing number of people.

  2. I do wish people would stop calling them zero emissions cars. Using them does cause emissions – at the power stations that generated the electricity that they are using up.

  3. Unlike the UK, France has mega cheap electricity.

    We pay €00.065 per KWH on our holiday home, give or take 5P per unit.

    Its a lot more than that here, even commercially we pay a lot more.

    This is really great news, and surely Nissan will continue to clean up as this technology matures.

    Its just a real shame the UK shameful infrastructure couldn’t really cope with much more demand for electricity.

    Pathetic is a better word!

  4. @4 – Yes all the Electricity in France is supplied by the public sector EDF – Who are also one of the major suppliers here, as are German state utility EON. They clean up in Britain effectively subsidising their local operations via their UK commercial arms. I wonder if this is what Mrs T had in mind when she flogged off the UKs utilities for a song? At the time our inneficient, incompetent public sector was incapable of supplying customers properly. Now we have the public sector from every other country ripping us off! We probably subsidise European governments far more through this arrangement than we do through EU contributions.

  5. Well done Nissan. Make it look a bit less like a medical appliance, and more like a CAR, and I might be tempted……..

  6. We import 10% of our electricity now,and we shut coal powered stations down while others build them,strangely with a reported 500 years reserve of the stuff underfoot.

    I think its more to do with bent politicians taking bungs from lobbies and private firms that has ultimately sent our power companies into foreign hands. So in france their power is cheaper than ours? how can that be?

    It has been stated above that the public sector here was incapable of supplying customers properly, how come? all seemed equitable when it was nationally controlled, now, we are facing brown outs soon or smart meters and appliances that the power companies can switch off remotely-to be paid for by us. When you have ministers like Tim Yeo making decisions on our green energy policy while also in the pay of a green energy concern isnt that a conflict of interest?

    Oh and i have not seen one Leaf on roads in Manchester yet.

  7. Good for Nissan – sounds like a worthwhile milestone to have reached, and goes some way towards justifying the investment. In the olds days of a Labour Government the Regional Development Agency, One North East, paid for 700 charging points to be installed in public places in the region, as well as providing other incentives to Nissan for building the Leaf and its battery plant here. You do see them occasionally in the area.

  8. More success for Nissan, though I would more likely buy a Qashqai than a Leaf. The driving range is getting better but still not enough for me and they are expensive. Saw my first Vauxhall Ampera last week – nice looking car and more versatile than the Leaf (but expensive also!)

  9. To be honest, I was expecting to be robbed blind when I called the “English Call Centre for EDF France”

    Energy a third the price of ours (and the French think they are being robbed)

    But in Germany and France, solar is not an option (mandatory in many places), and a lot less waste.

    Its about time we had a nuclear power station update.

    Magnox are from the 1960’s

  10. France is about 70% Nuclear and is a net exporter of electricity. We on the other hand are closing our nuclear stations, closing our coal stations and relying on gas and some windmills.

  11. @8 “Oh and I have not seen one Leaf on roads in Manchester yet.”
    There is a blue one alive and well driving daily around Urmston
    Not mine by the way!

  12. As many have said British infrastructure is a joke and corrupt politicians are to blame. Lots of opportunity for donations from private utilities and lucrative bribe retirement jobs for officials and politicians. Our nuclear programme has stalled because the idiot PFI style financing they are insisting on. Meanwhile we all get fleeced.

    As for the leaf, one thing puts me off. The cost of replacing the battery pack. Until it lasts the lifetime of the car, so I wouldn’t face an enormous bill to replace it. I wouldn’t touch one.

  13. France put its effort into Nuclear Power.
    The US has cheap energy from Shale gas

    The UK is doing neither one thing nor another, with massive subsidies for renewables like wind power that can only generate a fraction of the electricity needed…

  14. @15 Must have been the usual aggressive, confrontational German car driving middle aged man (well these are the worst offenders for aggressive driving along with white van man) who had borrowed his wifes Leaf for the day.
    Probably because his BMW was in the bodyshop getting repaired after he ran into the back of someone after tailgating them far too closely in an aggressive manner in the mistaken belief that he would get to his destination quicker.

  15. @19 – But then again, probably not. Ever wonder what stereotypical box people put you in?

  16. @19 Actually my BMW is in the bodyshop being repaired because some idiot in a Jag drove into the back of it. The driver in the Leaf was a woman.

  17. @20 Do not care. Seems you are another sheep who is in denial at the level of aggressive driving on the road.

  18. Panic over! The man (!) on Radio 4 yesterday said we have between 5 trillion cubic feet and hundreds of thousands of trillions of cubic feet of shale gas in a shallow grave somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool. I’m off to buy a stem or a petal or whatever it is!

  19. A co-worker purchased a new Leaf, a 2012 model, regret to report serious issues with actual vs published range, the car is back and forth with Nissan dealership as they attempt a solution.

  20. @24,the green zealots will try their best to keep it in the ground while their own lucrative vested interests like carbon capture fantasies and useless windmills prevail-which we will pay for.

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