In Japan, Nissan Meets Goal for Leaf Pre-Orders

Nissan Motor Company announced on Monday that it had received 6,000 pre-orders for the Leaf electric vehicle in Japan, hitting its sales goal for the current business year before the Leaf is scheduled to hit showrooms in December. According to a Nissan spokesperson, corporate customers placed about 60 percent of the pre-orders.

The third-largest automaker in Japan, Nissan had already gotten 13,000 Leaf pre-orders in the U.S. and Japan as of last month, exceeding its output capacity of 10,000 vehicles for the business year concluding in March of 2011.

Nissan started accepting orders from retail customers on April 1 in Japan, and on April 20 in North America. Roughly 60 percent of the retail customers who pre-ordered the vehicle in Japan were over age 50, the company reported in a statement.

A Bright Future for the Leaf

Next month, Leaf pre-orders will begin in four markets in Europe. The vehicle will debut in European showrooms in the Netherlands and Portugal in December and Ireland and the UK in February of 2011.

In Japan, the five-passenger, zero-emission electric vehicle will cost 2.99 million yen, or $32,530, after subsidies from the government. In Europe, the price after subsidies is just under 30,000 euros, or $35,860.

Nissan and its French business partner, Renault SA, intend to have a total production capacity of 500,000 electric vehicles by 2012.

So far, the two companies have invested over four billion euros in battery-powered electric vehicles.