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Nissan sells 100,000 Leaf EVs worldwide

Nissan sold 22,610 Leaf electric vehicles in the US last year, but the bigger story (literally) is how the company is selling the EV around the world. After selling the 99,999th Leaf to a woman in Virginia, Nissan sold the 100,000th Leaf to a man named Brett Garner in the UK. For the record, it took Nissan just about three years and one month to reach that mark, since the first Leafs were sold in December 2010. On a global scale, Nissan says the Leaf has a 45 percent market share among all the electric vehicles available. The car is available in 35 countries, but the bulk - as of the end of December, 42,122 units - have been sold in the US. That 99,999th Leaf was sold to Amy Eichenberger, a project manager overseeing major capital investments for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (pictured below). Garner owns a dental practice in Fareham. You can read their gushing quotes about their new EVs in the Nissan press releases below. If you add in all of the electric vehicles that Nissan and partner Renault have sold (90,000 as of March, the last time official numbers were available), then the 100,000 was topped a while ago. Of course, electric vehicles remain a small portion of Nissan's global sales. In fiscal 2012, Nissan sold 4.9 million vehicles around the world. Still, 100,000 Leafs out of 4.9 million cars is far better than zero. Nissan LEAF global sales reach 100,000 units Nissan LEAF is best-selling EV in history with 45% market share The 100,000th customer is a British dentist After revolutionizing passenger vehicle segment Nissan is electrifying LCVs with the e-NV200 YOKOHAMA, Japan (January 20, 2014) – The 100,000th all-electric Nissan LEAF is being bought by a customer in the United Kingdom. The Nissan LEAF, the world's first mass-produced zero emissions vehicle, remains the best-selling EV in history with a 45% market share. Since its launch in December 2010 Nissan has seen the pace of sales increase consistently and 2013 was a record year. The LEAF is now available to customers in 35 countries on four continents. In Norway, the Nissan LEAF topped sales charts, out-selling conventional gasoline powered vehicles in October 2013. The 100,000th Nissan LEAF customer is Dr. Brett Garner, the owner of a dental practice in Fareham in the UK. "I have chosen my Nissan LEAF because I am very interested in its running costs," Dr. Garner said. "The cost of ownership such as maintenance, insurance and charging also convinced my wife.

Nissan sees its EV sales surging to 1 million annually by 2022

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) annually by 2022, a six-fold jump from what it sold last year, and said it had no plans to stop testing its self-driving cars on public roads, calling them safe. Japan's No. 2 automaker and its rivals are planning to crank up development and production of electric cars in response to tightening emissions regulations around the world, even as demand for such vehicles remains limited due to their high cost and limited charging infrastructure. Launched as the world's first mass-market all-battery EV in 2010, Nissan's Leaf compact hatchback is the world's best-selling EV, though sales have been just around 300,000 units in its lifetime. The company now plans to focus its lower-emissions lineup on all-battery and gasoline-hybrid EVs rather than costlier technologies including plug-in hybrids. Nissan said on Friday it would develop eight new all-battery EVs over the next five years, including four models for China. Its luxury Infiniti brand would begin carrying new electric models from 2021, it added. Through 2022, vehicles powered by its "e-Power" gasoline-hybrid technology would likely comprise the majority of Nissan's electric line-up, it said. Such vehicles use gasoline to power the car's motor, requiring a much smaller battery than EVs and therefore are less expensive to produce. "The heart of our strategy in terms of electrification is battery EVs and e-Power technology," Nissan Chief Planning Officer Philippe Klein told reporters at a briefing. Concerns about EV battery costs and components have prompted many automakers to develop a variety of lower emissions technologies, but Klein said that Nissan would largely forego plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell technologies, given their low cost-performance at the moment. In 2017, Nissan sold 163,000 electric vehicles globally. Nissan and its automaking partners, Renault and Mitsubishi, together plan to launch 17 electric models as part of their strategy to achieve annual vehicle sales totaling 14 million units by 2022, compared with 10.6 million units in 2017. Self-driving tests to continue Automakers and technology companies are facing mounting pressure to prove that their automated driving functions under development are safe to use on public roads following a fatal accident involving a self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] in the United States earlier this week.

Tier 1 suppliers call GM the worst OEM to work with

Among automakers with a big US presence, General Motors is the worst to work for, according to a new survey from Tier 1 automotive suppliers, conducted by Planning Perspectives, Inc.
The Detroit-based manufacturer, which has been under fire following the ignition switch recall and its accompanying scandal, finished behind six other automakers with big US manufacturing operations. Suppliers had issues with trust and communications, as well as intellectual property protection. GM was also the least likely to allow suppliers to raise their prices in the face of unexpected increases in material cost, all of which contributed to 55 percent of suppliers saying their relationship with GM was "poor to very poor."
GM's cross-town competitors didn't fare much better. Chrysler finished in fifth place, ahead of GM and behind Dearborn-based Ford, which was passed for third place this year by Nissan. Toyota took the top marks, while Honda captured second place.