Nissan LEAF sold out in Japan, US

Nissan has announced that it has already sold its entire first-year allocation of the all-electric LEAF, receiving more than 19,000 pre-orders from customers in Japan and the US -- more than six months before the car is due to hit dealerships.

During a visit to the Detroit Economic Club this week, Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, said the early success of the zero emissions five-seat LEAF -- an acronym for Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family -- was such that the company may have to cease taking reservations.

"The pre-orders are such that we are very comfortable with what we have undertaken," explained Ghosn. "We have 13,000 orders in the US and 6000 orders in Japan."

Highlighting the acceptance of electric vehicle technology among the private sector, Ghosn said that all of Nissan's US orders had come from individual buyers, not from government entities.

Ghosn was in the US to attend the ground breaking ceremony of the firm's new plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. The plant will assemble LEAF vehicles and build batteries for the electric vehicle (and eventually other models) as part of Nissan's global push to sell at least half a million electric vehicles annually by 2013. The LEAF will also be built in Yokosuka, Tokyo for other markets.

In the US, the LEAF will go on sale from $32,780 and is eligible for a federal tax credit of $7500. The lithium-battery-powered car is expected to have a range of 160-kilometres from a full charge and be capable of speeds of more than 140km/h.

Deliveries of the Nissan LEAF in the US, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands will commence in December with Britain and Ireland to follow in February 2011. Australia will receive its first batch of the green LEAF in early 2012.

See the Nissan Leaf in action at Carsales TV.

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