Nissan Leaf’s reservations opened on 20th April in the US. While Nissan has resorted to some very aggressive marketing to generate unprecedented buzz for the electric car, one must say that it has been successful in getting people to sign up as the ‘hand-wavers’.
One of the first challenges for Nissan is to try and achieve its target of 25,000 electric cars in US. It has a relatively more modest target of 10000 cars annual sales in Japan. Report from Japan indicate that the reservations have generated enough interest and Nissan is set to cross 4000 bookings within the 3rd week of opening of reservations for the Leaf.
However, Japan is a different market altogether and it is home to the Nissan brand. It was Japan that helped Toyota on the path to recovery and hence Japan’s initial interest in the all-electric Leaf could be considered a foregone conclusion.
We need to see how Leaf turns out in the US market. After Japan, the US market is the chief source of sales for Nissan and its success or the success of the electric car products will largely depend on how well the Nissan Leaf performs and is supported in the US.
If you look at the pricing, then Leaf becomes a compelling buy for someone who is looking at a zero-emission car. It is priced at 32,780$ but after calculating the federal tax rebates, the price reduces considerably. Take the example of California, where you can get a rebate of 5000$ and together with the federal tax subsidy of 7500$, the effective price for a new subscriber is in the range of 21,000$. That price is a good motivator for the green lobby and hence the auto analysts believe that Nissan’s targets of 25000 cars for the first year should be over-achieved.
Whether Nissan succeeds in creating a market for zero-emission cars or the Nissan Leaf ends up being a fancy gadget of the green lobby is something that we will get to know next year. Until then, there are hordes of small automotive manufacturers that are waiting on the sidelines to grab a piece of the electric car market space. Rather than taking the plunge, they are waiting for the so-called case study of Nissan before deciding on whether or not to engage in the electric vehicle markets.
Robin is a passionate automotive writer. He has a keen interest in electric vehicles and green technology. He strongly advocates using fleet fuel cards for business. A business owner could use a fleet fuel card for fuel expense management.
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