subject: Japan Gives Big Push To Nissan Leaf; Next Stop Is Us. [print this page] 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'.
Nissan set itself a target of 10000 bookings in Japan and within 3 weeks of opening the bookings for the model, it is sitting merry at 4000 bookings.
As far as the US market is concerned, Nissan Leaf has a more ambitious target of 25,000 sales in 1 year. It has generated an unprecedented buzz for the brand by using Internet, and TV Media. Of the 5 States that are looking to welcome Leaf before the entire nation gets to own a Leaf, California looks like the first one to get Leaf's delivery.
For the record, California, Seattle, Phoenix, Oregon and Tennessee are the places that will ride on the massive investments made in public charging infrastructures and will be the first markets for the Leaf. Nationwide sales and available should happen subsequently.
Understandably, Leaf is set to arrive in the US in December and the buzz for the product is unprecedented. It is one of the most eagerly awaited electric cars and the price is looking good at $25000. A lot of effort has gone into setting up the charging infrastructure for electric cars like Leaf. From the Government standpoint, the message is positive for the electric cars because electric cars are likely to get subsidies and consumers can further seek help to build home charging infrastructure.
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.
