More than 200,000 Nissan LEAFs have now been sold worldwide — with the company hitting the new milestone just before the model’s 5-year anniversary. The Nissan LEAF was first launched back in December 2010.
The new milestone is also significant because it demonstrates the LEAF’s dominance of the electric vehicle (EV) market. The only real competitor (with regard to sales and price range) to date has been the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Chevy Volt — which has “only” sold 104,000 units to date (this includes the rebranded Opel Ampera), practically half the Nissan LEAF number. Notably, the Tesla Model S has also sold well — almost 100,000 units to date — but that model is unaffordable for most.
Following the earlier reports of the passing of the new milestone, it should be noted, Nissan apparently removed the original press release and replaced it with a reworded one. Here’s more on that from Hybrid Cars:
This article followed official word of over 200,000 sales in a Nissan press release, but a day later Nissan offered another statement without deleting the first saying it expects by January to sell 200,00 Leafs. Inquiries to Nissan over the contradiction have not been answered. It is believed the company may be hedging, playing it extra safe. If it has not actually crossed 200,000 sales, it will within a matter of days. We are leaving this story intact considering Nissan is the source for the news, and it has not been retracted.
More or less just a technicality, one way or another — the model clearly has now reached the ~200,000 mark.
With the 2016 refresh due to hit the market soon (er… just hitting the market), sales should pick up a fair amount, especially considering the sales dropoff that’s occurred recently in anticipation of the release. Long-term predictions on sales are harder to make, as much depends on the price point that the company decides to go with following the release of the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model 3 (this is just my opinion, of course).