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AUTOS: Electric Nissans Are Sold Out
20,000 people have made deposits for the Leaf's entire 2011 model run.
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield  | http://allcarselectric.com  |  Posted May 28, 2010   Smyrna, TN
If you wanted one of the first batch of Nissan Leaf electric cars, you're too late; 2011 models have sold out. (Photo: Nissan)
Unless you're already one of the 20,000 people who have already put their names down and paid a deposit for the 2011 Nissan Leaf, you won't be getting one this year. Nissan has sold them out.

While Nissan does not take firm orders until August, the automaker has closed the lists for pre-registration after a massive 20,000 customers worldwide have expressed an interest in the five-seat, all-electric hatchback.

The U.S. market alone has been responsible for 13,000 pre-orders. Each customer in America has placed a $100 deposit down to secure a place in the ordering queue.

Nissan Leaf is the first production all-electric car to market in the latest flurry of activity from the world's automakers. (Photo: Nissan)
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who is also CEO of French partner and shareholder Renault, is due to break ground today on a new battery plant facility at Nissan's Smyrna factory complex in Tennessee.

Many EV fans have criticized Nissan for asking potential owners of the 2010 Leaf to take part in a short questionnaire detailing the customer's driving habits, charging facilities and parking arrangements. Others have praised Nissan's move as a sensible way of ensuring that the first 20,000 vehicles to hit the streets are owned by drivers who understand the Leaf's range, charging requirements and performance.

The 20,000 reservations are from private buyers, not fleet orders. It is unclear if Nissan has a separate quota for the fleet market to satisfy rental-car and governmental orders.

Selling just 20,000 cars in the first year of production is a small figure for Japan's third largest automaker. But by 2013, Nissan hopes to sell a combined 500,000 electric cars per year under the Nissan, Infiniti and Renault brands.

As Ghosn recently told a Detroit industry audience, the only way to bring an electric car to market is to go big. Explaining the recent tie up between Nissan, Renault and Germany's Daimler AG, Ghosn expressed his belief that cooperation on new technology is the way forward.

"No 3 million-unit carmaker can make it,” Ghosn said. “And you can't be viable as a niche player, so you need to be in the upper, lower, 4-by-4 and crossover segments."

It's clear then that Nissan's future is in shared competencies between its European counterparts and anyone else who has the technology it needs. But for now, Nissan's game is similar to that played by Toyota when it first announced the Infiniti Toyota Prius: Sell a limited number of a completely revolutionary vehicle, create interest, then ramp up production.

When Toyota sold the Prius in this way, the resultant Prius-mania ensured that the hybrid hatchback practically sold itself, and it still remains the most well-known eco-car on the market today.

Following in Toyota's footsteps, Nissan is shaping up to play the same game, but no doubt at the expense of Toyota Prius fans, many of whom form some of Nissan's pre-order crowd.

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Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

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