Nissan’s Electric Vehicles – high demand, low supply

By Alborz Fallah | May 28th, 2010

Nissan is a lucky car company, ever since Carlos Ghosn took over as CEO of Renault and Nissan, both companies have come out on top in their own way. Mr Ghosn has been a big supporter of many successful projects, apart from rescuing Nissan from bankruptcy and into a rather profitable business, he can be credited for giving the go ahead for the current Nissan GT-R which has bought Nissan more credibility than could’ve been imagined.

He is also a strong believer in electric vehicles which is why Nissan has produced the Nissan LEAF. The electric car which was recently shown to the media in Australia currently has more than 13,000 paid reservations (worldwide) even thought it’s still several months away from being produced.

Despite the positivity surrounding the LEAF, Nissan’s Ghosn is still waiting to see actual sales numbers prior to increasing production capacity.

“The signs coming are very encouraging, we see the number of hand raisers — 130,000. The number of people putting in reservations and paying a little bit of money — 13,000. They’re all encouraging. But they are still not sales. We have to be careful. If we see, when December comes and actual sales start, the hand-raising and pre-ordering transform fully into sales, we’ll have to make some decision and action on capacity” Ghosn told reported in the United States.

Given the current number of interested parties Nissan has admitted it will be past its manufacturing capacity for at least the first two years. The Nissan LEAF will initially be built in Japan only and then if all goes well a brand-new 150,000-car-a-year assembly line in Tennessee USA which is set to go live by 2013 will help ease supply issues.

Can you see yourself driving an electric car in the next 10 years?

James

I certainly see my self driving an electric vehicle. We need to move to a more sustainable form of energy. Power electric cars from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass) and lets lose our dependence on a non renewable energy source. We are in the 21st century and are still digging and pumping prehistoric dinosaurs waste and burning it. We are putting guns to peoples heads and are sending our own people to volatile and dangerous places around the world to secure our energy.
Paul

Nissan have taken 19,000 reservations and have sold out their first years production in just 35 days! And all this before customers have even seen the car in person, let alone have a test drive.
toxic_horse

Where are the comments from the electric car doubters now ?

I personally can’t wait till we start seeing a range of electric cars. It won’t take long before we get electric cars that are quick and fun to drive.

Ill hang on to my V8 holden for when I want a dose of cave man action.
Shak

I’ll happily park either this or the Volt in my driveway. More likely the Volt as im a Holden man. But kudos to Nissan for an attractive, viable and efficient EV.
Nick K

No, not interested in the LEAF until I can get a range of around 400kms and can fast charge it in 10 mins or so. The current range of 160Kms and the slow fast charge times make this a deal breaker for me. Also, this car is not clean in Australia… to charge it requires coal fired electricity so there is not carbon benefit.

http://www.facebook.com/nrajcoomar Narendra Rajcoomar

Yes it would, internal combustion engines have an efficiency of about 19% compared to coal which is about 60 %, also there is a 25 % drive train loss in cars, electric cars have an efficiency of about 80 % or so, and there is little energy that is lost during charging.

topdog

Dont forget there not all fueled bye coal.In melboure there first charging posts are powered bye the sun and renuable energy.Plus you dont need huge range for these cars as there only city runabouts .So long as you can do all your buisness in a day with these thats all you need .If it has not got your range you need, well you will just have to stick to burning petrol then simple realy

Mythfrances

Of course there is carbon benefit. On top of that, it takes away the smoke from highly populated area to some remote country towns where there are a lot of trees to clean the air. The air quality in metropolitans will improve greatly.

John

The electric cars are the future.
I hope that they will replace the gasoline cars as soon as possible.
The electricity for the cars should come from clean sources – wheel, sun, nuclear.
If by 2010 the half of the sold cars will be electric we can save the world from global warming and oil dependancy.

Andrew M

You make a bold statement there.

You also imply that cars are the biggest contributer to global emissions.

Cars actually count for bugger all of global emissions

Shak

nopt bugger all about 8%. Mehtane from agriculture and pollution form energy production contribute about 30% a peice.

milobob

it’s already 2010
Kelvin

You really need to learn to use punctuation properly. A little proofreading wouldn’t go astray, either. For a writer/’journalist’, some of your articles make for frustrating reading.
Tom

EV’s are only a stopover on the way to Hydrogen powered transport or can you imagine an aircraft running on batteries after fossil fuels are no longer available. EV’s are heavy in weight and are very resource based. Those resources will run out very soon too.
Shak

First Hybrids and EV’s are different. Secondly if you have been sta;lking my posts you will know that i hate Toyota. And thirdly, looks are subjective. I like the Leaf, Volt and i45. the Camry looks like a scaled down Aurion.(or is an Aurion a scaled up Camry, or is the camry a scaled up Corrola.) Also i have yet to drive th i45 so cant judge its dynamics but i have driven the Camry(my cousin bought one for his wife). It is still soggy, but feels quicker.
topdog

Im with you ,I recone the leaf looks good conpared to the prius