The all-electric Nissan Leaf was introduced in Europe in early 2011, followed by a revised version in mid-2013 with over 100 improvements led by customer feedback. Clearly, working on the feedback has paid off for Nissan as the Leaf is now Europe’s best-selling EV for the fourth year in a row.
At 14,658 units, sales for the Leaf increased by 33 per cent in 2014 compared to the previous year, taking more than a quarter of the burgeoning electric car market sales.
Nissan Europe senior vice president of sales and marketing, Guillaume Cartier explains the increase in sales, commenting: “We can now see the impact that word of mouth is having on our sales, with 95 per cent of our customers happy to recommend their car to a friend and 50 per cent saying they would never go back to diesel or petrol. This kind of powerful advocacy, combined with an increasing awareness of the massive running cost savings electric car drivers experience, is why our Nissan LEAF sales continue to grow.”
Despite efforts from a few local and global automakers, electric vehicles in India are yet to gain traction as a viable alternative to petrol or diesel vehicles. However, it’s not all bad news as the government recently has earmarked Rs 1,000 crore for the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan for the next two financial years to set up charging infrastructure, technology development, incentives and pilot projects.
