Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Nissan Motor last week marked the ten-year anniversary of the Nissan Leaf, the first mass market electric car.
The launch of the zero-emission Leaf in December 2010 quickly put Nissan in the lead for global electric car sales, and it maintained this lead in the total number of vehicles of a single model sold until this year. It even reached the milestone recently of selling 500,000 units over the model’s lifetime.
The Leaf has been produced at plants in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and has been sold in 59 markets around the world.
Nissan President and CEO Makoto Uchida stated, “In marking these milestones, we firstly want to express our appreciation to all the customers who have come on this electrifying journey with us. By switching to electric mobility, customers around the world have brought us all closer to a more sustainable and resilient society.”
However, its dominance has long since faded. For example, in the first half of 2020, the Leaf held the No. 3 rank in global sales of battery electric vehicles with about 24,000 units shipped to buyers. While that may sound pretty good, the world’s top-ranking electric car, the Tesla Model 3, scored 142,000 unit sales in the same period.
The regrettable fact is that although Nissan jumped out to an early and decisive lead in electric vehicle sales, it failed to follow through by putting out new models and showing a true commitment to an electric-first strategy. It wasn’t until July this year that the company finally made its next big step, which was the unveiling of the Nissan Ariya all-electric crossover.
While Nissan expects to sell one million electrified vehicles annually by 2023, including vehicles with e-Power electrified powertrains, it seems highly unlikely that it come anywhere near catching up with Tesla in the foreseeable future.
