Nissan begins Delivering Leaf Electric Cars — Slowly

Nissan has started official sales of its Leaf electric car with the delivery of the first vehicle in California; one of the companies planned primary markets. The car’s debut, though, is far from the common introduction of a new model. The Leaf is offered at first in only a handful of markets and for most potential buyers it is at least a year away.

Cars from the first batch, and another wave scheduled to reach your destination Dec. 20, will go to waiting customers in the company’s “primary launch markets” as well as Arizona, Oregon, Seattle, Tennessee and California. Buyers in Hawaii and Texas will be next in line, in receipt of their vehicles in early 2011.

The car maker says it is "on track" for nationwide sales of the Leaf by 2012, however also says it will have to hold off on getting cars to some customers in order to "fulfill interest and meet demand in initial launch markets." Nissan says it will stay until the second half of 2011 to start delivering the Leaf in some markets that were initially supposed to get it sooner.

Nissan and other car makers are releasing their electric-powered models carefully in part because they desire to make sure buyers have sufficient charging equipment at home, and public charging stations available locally. In all of the initial markets Nissan says it produced partnerships with local, regional and state governments and with utilities to expand a charging infrastructure and policies favorable to electric vehicles.


Manufacturers say they desire to reduce the so-called range anxiety that can come with driving an electric car, so they are selling the first cars to customers who are improbable to obtain stuck without a place to charge. The Chevrolet Volt, Nissan’s main rival that is anticipated to go on sale this month, uses a gasoline engine to extend the car’s range beyond the 40 or so miles it can travel on battery power alone. The Nissan Leaf can go concerning twice as far on battery power but has no range-extension characteristic.

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