Nissan Motor Co., aiming to be the biggest seller of electric cars, said a lower U.S. price for its Leaf hatchback compared with Japan and Europe reflects differences in local taxes and incentives and that the vehicle will eventually make money in all markets.
Nissan said this week its battery-powered Leaf will cost about $37,000 in Europe after incentives. That compares with $32,780 in the U.S. before incentives and a base price in Japan of more than $40,000. Variations in import fees, taxes and incentives account for the disparities, said Tom Smith, Nissan's chief marketing manager for European electric auto sales.
"If you just translate the U.S. price into euros, you seem to get a significant difference," Smith said this week in a phone interview from Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Excluding Europe's higher tax on the vehicle and an import duty that's four times that in the U.S., "we are priced at exactly the same level in both markets," he said.
The Leaf, powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, will go on sale in Japan and the U.S. this year and in Europe next year. Nissan's Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn has set a goal of leading sales of rechargeable vehicles, which he estimates may make up 10 percent of global auto demand by 2020.
While competitors Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are preparing to sell battery-powered and plug-in hybrid models, none has announced plans matching Nissan's goal of being able to sell as many as 500,000 electric cars by 2012.
Too Low?
Nissan aims for the Leaf to compete in price with Toyota's gasoline-electric Prius and Honda Motor Co.'s Civic Hybrid in the U.S. The vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit and may get an added $5,000 rebate in California, where large automakers are required to sell electric vehicles.
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