Nissan predicts big U.S. market for Leaf
Electric-car sales seen passing a million by 2015
Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 11/15/2009 10:06:47 PM
Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn sees U.S. consumer demand for electric vehicles reaching a million plug-in models before 2015. "There is absolutely no reason that you will not have much more than one million cars in the U.S. before 2015," Ghosn says at a briefing in Los Angeles last Friday to show off its battery-powered Leaf small car.
Ghosn tells Bloomberg the model will sell for the same price as a similar-size gasoline-powered car when deliveries begin next year, with consumers paying a separate monthly fee to lease the Leaf's lithium-ion batteries.
Nissan, Japan's third-largest carmaker, is preparing the Leaf to meet U.S. demands for higher fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions, as well as California rules requiring large auto companies to sell exhaust-free models. The likelihood that oil prices will keep rising will make battery cars increasingly appealing to U.S. drivers, Ghosn says.
Nissan's U.S. unit, based in Franklin, Tenn., believes it will get at least 20,000 initial orders for the Leaf in 2010. Meanwhile, Nissan is using a $1.6 billion U.S. loan to retool its Smyrna, Tenn., plant to make Leaf starting in 2012, as well as an assembly line to make lithium-ion battery packs for the car. Bloomberg reports the company has said it will be able to produce as many as 150,000 electric vehicles and 200,000 battery packs a year.
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