Nissan: 20,000 Leaf Electric Cars Served

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Nissan announced with glee yesterday it had hit a happy milestone in the development of its upcoming Leaf electric car. The Japanese automaker reached its 20,000th reservation for the 100 percent electric car, completing the first phase of customer reservations in the car’s roll out plans.

Nissan had originally anticipated on hitting the 20,000 mark in December, so that it comes three months ahead of time seems to indicate a high interest in the Leaf. Those who missed the first phase will have to wait for now though, as no further reservations will be taken until next year. The automaker reportedly capped it here so that it can focus on “providing the best level of customer service and premium ownership experience to those who already have enrolled.”

Nissan Leaf 20k

image via Nissan

Consumers who already have made reservations will continue to have the opportunity to purchase or lease the vehicle, with Nissan following its planned order-release timing for existing reservationists. Orders have been prioritized based on market timing and when consumers submitted their original reservations online and paid their refundable reservation fee. Sales of the Leaf begin in December in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Tennessee. In January 2011, sales begin in Texas and Hawaii. The car will be available nationwide by the end of 2011.

For those wanting a closer up experience with the Leaf, Nissan is also doing a 23 city Leaf tour starting at the beginning of October and running through the end of March next year.

“As of today, 20,000 consumers have spoken, and they are choosing the Nissan Leaf and a zero-emission future,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America, in a statement. “We, along with our dealers, now look forward to focusing on providing an absolute top-level purchase experience to our first customers, and to help ensure that the transition to gas-free driving is a seamless one.”

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Posted on September 24th, 2010 · Comment ↓

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Posted in Transportation

  • http://www.pluginamerica.org Paul Scott

    Full disclosure, I sell LEAFs for Santa Monica Nissan.

    I can’t tell you how exciting it is to know that we’re only a few months from the delivery of the first LEAFs and Volts. Even upstart Coda is going to sell cars by the end of the year. As someone who has been driving a fully electric, Toyota RAV4 EV for almost 8 years, I can say with assurance you are all going to be completely amazed by the experience.

    Before I go any further, I need to say that your house should be running on renewable electricity. If you can’t install solar panels, you should buy renewable energy from your utility. If they don’t offer it, become an activist and persistently demand it. Don’t stop till you win.

    Once your house runs on renewable energy, then when you get your EV, that too, will run on sunlight or wind-generated kWh. This eliminates any argument of a long tailpipe.

    The experience of driving these cars is remarkable. They are all very powerful, quite quick, smooth as glass, quiet and predictable. The predictability is very useful in that it allows for extremely efficient driving. Hypermilling is very easy to do and practicing it increases safety at the same time.

    Think about the feeling you’ll get as first weeks, then months go by and you realize you never go to gas stations anymore. Those bastards running the oil companies will never get another dime from you. How cool is that!?

    Of the $2,000-$4,000 you were spending for gas every year, 60% of it left the country. 90% of it left your local community. Every EV that replaces a gas-burner will be responsible for keeping that 90% of your energy money right here in your community. That money, eventually totaling in the millions and billions, will instead be circulating 2-3 times in your community, generating jobs for your friends and family.

    We’re witnessing the beginning of the most significant transformation in the history of the automobile. The extraction, shipping, refining, and burning of oil causes the world much pain. Using kWh generated by the sun falling on your house, or the wind blowing in the fields outside of town, will eliminate 100% of the pollution associated with driving your car.

    100%.

    All of your money will stay domestic generating thousands of jobs in every state.

    And last but not least… we’ve never fought a war over electricity, and we never will.