Renault-Nissan notches 250,000 EV sales

The alliance between the French and Japanese titans reached the milestone a few weeks ago. Between the two brands, it accounts for half of the EVs sold worldwide.

Sales are growing, too. From January through May, the Alliance sold about 31,700 EVs — up nearly 15.0 per cent over the same period of last year. 

Among these, the Nissan Leaf (pictured atop story) is easily the best-selling electric vehicle of all time, with more than 180,000 units delivered to date.

“Demand for our electric vehicles continues to grow thanks to government incentives and the expanding charging infrastructure,” said chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance Carlos Ghosn.

With six models on the road, the Renault-Nissan Alliance claims to be the only global car group with a “full range” of pure EVs. In addition to the Leaf, Nissan also sells the e-NV200 van (pictured above). In addition to the Zoe (pictured below), Renault also sells the Renault Kangoo ZE van, the SM3 ZE sedan and the Twizy two-seater urban vehicle. 

For those interested, the quarter-of-a-millionth EV was a white Renault Zoe told to a French engineer, Yves Nivelle. Nivelle bought his EV after the French government introduced an environmental bonus in April to allow owners of older, polluting diesel cars to trade them in and get a rebate of €10,000 on a new EV.

This stands in contrast to Australia, where Nissan’s regional managing director Richard Emery has recently criticised the lack of any significant government-funded assistance, or even acceptance of, EVs — sales of which are down about 16.0 per cent this year according to VFACTS.

Even so, Nissan has sold more than 500 Leafs in Australia.