Strong start for Nissan Leaf electric vehicle reservations
As we reported last week, Nissan has opened an online system to reserve a place in line for the upcoming Leaf electric vehicle. Although reservations cost $99, Nissan notes that the vehicle is off to a healthy start with 6,635 takers after only 65 hours. Nissan reports that 2,700 of those reservations came in the first three hours alone.
In Japan, which has a much smaller automobile market than the US, the company received an impressive 3,700 orders in the three weeks after it started taking reservations on April 1st.
Nissan boasts that pre-orders in Japan and the US have so far exceeded their expectations. The automaker recently announced a $1.4 billion expansion to its Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing plant to build both the car and its advanced lithium-ion battery pack.
The company notes that because of the battery pack’s bulky size and hefty weight, it makes more financial sense to build electric vehicles close to the markets in which they are sold, a plus for proponents of ‘buy local’ policies.
The Leaf will come in two trim levels and the upper “SL” trim level is so far leading the lower “SV” trim level by three to one. The SL model costs an additional $940 and includes extras like a backup camera, solar panel spoiler, fog lights, and automatic headlights. The vehicle has an estimated range of 100 miles in real-world driving conditions.
The Nissan Leaf will go on sale later this year and will be first released in areas where Nissan has government partners who are already helping to build a public charging infrastructure and ensure that there are no surprise zoning restrictions for charging units installed at customer homes. California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Tennessee will lead the way and Nissan plans to expand sales to the rest of the country in late 2011.
UPDATE: To clarify, the 6,635 early reservations have all come from the roughly 115,000 people who had signed up to be on the Leaf’s email list. Nissan will begin offering reservations to the general public on May 15th.
2 Comments
While 6,600 seems like a lot, I have to think that this is a low number. First, it’s a non-refundable deposit, making in non-binding. I’m sure there are folks who are putting money down in hopes that their place in line has some value (for sale later). And the conversion of those folks (into actual sales) will be 60-70% at best. We will have to see how it performs in the coming weeks, but I wouldn’t say this is a high number. I thought it was actually low. I was expecting 10K.
Keep in mind, Tesla probably has ~2,500 reservations for a much more expensive car from a still unproven manufacturer. Oh, and those folks put down $5K.
My fear about the Leaf is sustainable sales. Like other unique car launches we’ve seen (see SMART), there’s upfront demand and no legs to the product after initial demand dies down or other companies launch their products. The good news for Nissan, is that they’re not launching a fad car….. electric vehicles will be here for good and they’re out of the gate first. But they have to hit the product out of the park.
I think Nissan needs 25K+ for its presale efforts to be a legit success (assuming 15-18K actual sales). It’s early. We’ll see. Keep us posted Matt. I am one of the 6,600… and yes, awaiting more info from Chevy before I make my final decision.
Great points, Tom (and kudos on jumping in to be one of the first to reserve). Unless we see a huge swing in fuel prices over the next few years, I agree that Nissan will have a hard time getting the Leaf out there.
Despite the 100-mile range, the Leaf has two big things that can help it along until fuel prices climb:
1. State and federal incentives worth thousands of dollars (the federal incentive is worth up to $7,500 on its own)
2. The Leaf is a ‘real car’ with 5 seats and a decent cargo area
Time will tell if that’s enough to keep the momentum going!