1 Leaf demo per Nissan dealer (and only 20,000 TOTAL for the year)

[DainBramaged]

Each of Nissan's U.S. dealers will give up one electric Leaf demo as the factory tries to satisfy initial demand for the car.

Dealers had been promised two demo Leafs each. Instead, they will now receive only one in a bid to free up cars for sales, said Al Castignetti, Nissan Division vice president.

The sacrifice could mean as many as 1,000 extra Leafs going to consumers when the car goes on sale next month.

Nissan North America will receive only 20,000 Leafs in the first year, including dealer demos. Production volume is limited by a new Japanese assembly line and a new plant that is supplying the Leaf's lithium ion battery.


Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101122/RETAIL03/101119760/1114#ixzz1629VSuxC


People think the auto manufacturers can crank out these cars at the same pace as an established model. This goes to prove tht production is limited not by design but by manufacturing capacity. With 1000 Nissan dealers nationwide, that means 20 per dealer including people who have already deposited one. And that means only 1600+ per month nationwide available.

[LynneSin]

1. Well they should focus on those dealers in or near urban centers

I mean some Nissan dealership out in the country probably won't have much of a market for one of these cars.

[DainBramaged]

2. I understand, those dealers will probably give up their allocations

just like Chevy dealers in the hinterlands did for urban dealers regarding Volt allocations! And 4500 Chevy dealers are sharing 10,000 Volts. OR hold out for cars they need for swaps and use the Leaf at the bait.

[dmallind]

3. the 20k limit has been known for over a year

it's just start up production in Japan until they can ramp up the TN plant. The 20k are all preordered btw as demand is so high - hence the year+ waiting list. Prius started off about the same. This of course is a corollary of the sales success of the launch. If Nissan had spare capacity for demos (which given sight unseen sales are a bit useless) THEN they should be worried.

I for one believe any ev or even serial-hybrid partial ev sale is a good thing and look forward to successes like this and huge pent up demand causing all manufacturers to ramp up production of mass market evs. The Focus and RAV4 are coming in 2012 too. Competition for EV sales is good.