
Nissan Sells 100,000 LEAFs, Captures 48% Of Worldwide Electric Vehicle Market - codex
http://insideevs.com/nissan-sells-100000-leafs-captures-48-of-worldwide-market-to-date/
======
nostromo
Check out how fast this market it going. (US battery electric vehicle sales
per year:
[http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/20952/pid/2...](http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/20952/pid/20952))

    
    
      2010:     19 (lol, is that right?)
      2011: 10,064
      2012: 52,835
      2013: 96,702

~~~
ryanhuff
Considering that Telsa brought in $116M in revenue in 2010, I find the 2010
count suspect.

[http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-
motors...](http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-motors-
reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2010-results)

~~~
rgbrenner
Most of that revenue is from selling EVs to Daimler and others. But it does
look like you are right about the 2010 number being off..

Tesla celebrates 1000th roadster: Jan 12, 2010

[http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-
celebr...](http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-
celebrates-1000th-roadster)

Full Year 2010 Results "Tesla delivered its 1,500th Roadster during the [4th]
quarter."

[http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-
motors...](http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-motors-
reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2010-results)

~~~
spullara
The fact that they are so wrong on that statistic makes me question their data
collection methods. How can you trust anything else on that page?

------
dangrossman
That's 4 times the number of Model S on the road, if anyone was curious.

~~~
Shivetya
That they have sold so many is a good thing. Unlike Tesla, they don't have the
advantage of selling into a market where people have a large amount of
disposable income.

I would say that when cars like the Leaf, the sub 100 mile range club, get
under twenty thousand after the government rebate then sales should really
take off. I have no problem subsidizing the purchase of a reasonably priced
electric like the Leaf or even as a stretch the i3 but once you pass into
luxury pricing those people don't need the payout from the public

~~~
maxerickson
They are selling to people with disposable income though, pretty much by
definition.

People buying the Leaf are buying a new car that only does one thing better
than new vehicles $15,000-20,000 cheaper.

------
jwatte
I've owned a leaf for 30 months now, driven almost 30,000 miles, and still
like it.

Also, it seems every second car in the HOV lane in the SF bay area it's a
Leaf...

~~~
coin
Are electric vehicles allowed in the High Occupancy Vehicle lane without being
high occupancy (single occupant)?

~~~
thrownaway2424
Yes, a fact which will make any bus rider want to reach for his bazooka. Man,
there is nothing more irritating than being stuck in the HOV lane in a bus in
a traffic jam consisting entirely of teslas and leafs.

~~~
coin
They should not call it the "HOV lane" since they allow non high occupancy
vehicles (e.g. hybrid car, electric car, motorcycles). My understanding was
the HOV lane's purpose is to encourage car pooling (i.e. high occupancy).
Allowing single occupant motorcycles and electric cars sort of defeats this
purpose.

~~~
chiph
I prefer the name "High Subsidy Lane" for them.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Boom. Comment of the month. ^^^

------
pinaceae
and yet it is completely tasteless designwise. what an ugly, ugly car.

tesla is doing it right, the fiat500e is beautiful - why is it so hard to
understand that design matters? the new BMW i3 is not exactly beautiful as
well.

~~~
mikestew
> why is it so hard to understand that design matters?

Maybe Nissan did understand that, which is how we ended up with the Leaf. You
spend $32K on a car that's saving polar bears, you want the world to know it.
How am I supposed to feel smug if I'm driving something that looks like a
Nissan Versa?

Contrast that to the Tesla Model S, which IMO is kind of bland (though I'd
still buy one if we didn't have the Leaf). A buddy of mine recently said he
hadn't seen a Tesla. In Redmond, WA? I guarantee that he saw at least one or
two on his way to work at Microsoft that morning. But if one isn't in to cars
much, a Model S isn't really going to stand out.

~~~
yen223
If you want a car that smug people can feel smug about, at least have the
courtesy to make it look desirable.

I'm looking at you too, Prius.

~~~
dagw
The ugliness of it is the whole point. You care so much about the environment
that you don't even care about silly superficial things like aesthetic design.
If it looked desirable then there is a risk that people might assume you
bought it for its looks rather than it environmental credentials and your
smugness potential takes a serious hit.

~~~
notdrunkatall
I would like to volunteer myself to slap the shit out of everyone with this
mindset.

------
oblio
This is so nice, until you figure out that the electric car has been around
since 1880:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car).
Now it's trying to claw its way to 0.1% of worldwide car sale - and let's not
try to figure out which percentage of total cars used this represents
(probably 0.00001%).

I know that after a tipping point adoption just starts snowballing, but that
point still looks 10-12 years away (a market share of electric car sales at
10% or better).

------
obblekk
It's interesting that this model has been unsuccessful in the US, but fits the
demand profile perfectly in other wealthy countries.

The American market, as always, is difficult to move.

~~~
rgbrenner
Did you read the article? If so, where did you get 'unsuccessful' from?

 _Nissan LEAF launched in the United States in December 2010. The United
States accounts for nearly half of the sales worldwide. The pace of LEAF sales
has continued to accelerate. In 2013, Nissan sold 22,610 of the electric
vehicles in the United States, more than twice as many as in 2012 and more
than 2012 and 2011 Leaf sales combined.

Nissan LEAF traditionally has performed well on the West Coast with notable
markets such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, but now interest has
expanded across the country. New hot markets have emerged such as Atlanta,
which has been the No. 1 LEAF market for the past five months._

~~~
obblekk
Yes I read that. But I seemeded to recall that they anticipated higher sales
when they first introduced the LEAF, though I may be mistaken.

------
lingben
Tesla better hurry and bring their lower range car to market

~~~
prostoalex
Or wait a few more years when Leaf batteries reach their lifetime expiration,
and those buyers are back on the market.

~~~
sliverstorm
The car has been on the market, what, 3-4 years? Just how fast do you think
the batteries will expire?

~~~
prostoalex
I think the official estimate is 8 years, give or take 3 depending on average
temperatures.

~~~
dangrossman
> The battery pack is expected to retain 70% to 80% of its capacity after 10
> years

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Battery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Battery)

8 years happens to be the length of the warranty on 2011/2012 Leaf batteries.
Either way, combined with the optional $100/mo protection plan that gives you
a new battery if yours ever loses 30% capacity, I doubt any Leaf buyers will
be on the market before 2021 for any reason other than _wanting_ a new car.

------
brc
Sounds good...but they will OT reach their original target of 1.5m EVs per
year. It was probably a good statement of intent at the time though.

------
dcc1
Great > more electrics > less demand for petrol > lower petrol prices for us
non-hipsters

~~~
Cthulhu_
Haha, you wish; more likely prices will go up because petrol stations complain
about not selling as much gas anymore, so they have to raise the prices to
compensate.

There is no such thing as decreasing gas prices.

~~~
bigd
So true. then (at least in our country) there's the base federal taxation:

we still are paying the following "una-tantum":

Abissinia war 1935

Suez crysis 1956

Vajont disaster 1963

Firenze floods 1966

Belice Earthquake 1968

Friuli Earthquake 1976

Irpinia Earthquake 1980

Libanon peace mission 1983

Bosnia peace mission 1996

...

+22% VAT

------
programminggeek
Wow, I figured there were more than 200,000 RC Cars sold each year. _rimshot_

~~~
programminggeek
Man, jokes are not well received on HN.

~~~
gjm11
The HN audience is really tough -- it requires that jokes _actually be funny_
before reckoning them a net addition to the conversation. Preferably funny and
insightful at once, but I've seen things substantially upvoted just for being
very witty.

This is a Good Thing because it means HN discussions are less likely to get
swamped under an avalanche of cheap jokes. (Cheap jokes are much _easier_ than
insight.)

