The European Car of the Year, Nissan LEAF has been formally launched in Japan and the response is staggering. The newly launched LEAF’s popularity is so overwhelming that it is already overbooked till March 2011.
Approximately 20,000 US customers and 6,000 Japanese customers have placed their orders for the Nissan leaf.
An elated, Toshiyuki Shiga, COO, Nissan Motors, said “This day has finally arrived. The curtains are about to rise for a new era in the auto industry.”
The original price of the Leaf in Japan was $45,000 but owing to the car’s zero emissions, the Japanese Government has offered a subsidized benefit of $9,000 bringing the cost down to $36,000. The American Government has also offered a similar scheme in select states, amounting to $7,500. The original price of the Leaf in the US is $33,600.
Nissan, who was initially testing the waters with the Leaf, has a present production capacity of only 50,000 Leafs annually. Nissan has planned new manufacturing units in the US and the UK and will gear up its annual production to 250,000 units soon. Nissan Motors have scheduled the launch of its leaf in the European Continent, next year.
