Almost 4,000 LEAFs produced to date according to Perry
In an interview with treehugger Radio, Nissan’s Mark Perry, Director of Product Planning and Advanced Technology, said “…we’ve built about three, almost four thousand LEAFs globally already…”, which fits in very close to our production speculation of February 8. We guessed that 300 LEAFs were built in the first month of production (10 per day), and that production would double each month until full production is achieved (4,100 per month) in the second quarter of 2011, as stated by Carlos Tavares at the first LEAF delivery in San Francisco.
Production started on October 22, 2010. Through Nov 22, 300 LEAFs would be produced based on our numbers. Through December, add 600 more to make 900. Through January 22 add 1,200 to make 2,100. Through February 22, if doubled again, add 2,400 to make 4,500. Since we aren’t quite to February 22 yet, production would be somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000. While not exact, we think that perhaps we were not too far off in our estimates. In any case, as has previously been reported, U.S. deliveries will pick up after the Japanese domestic market (JDM) tax incentives come to an end in March. That is the really important information to most of us who have placed our LEAF orders already.
Most of the rest of the interview covers already released information. Also, while there is a printed version of the audio recording, it is significantly edited. If you wish to get everything said accurately, we highly recommend listening to the audio interview which is about 23 minutes long.
This is very good news. Appears Nissan are truly beginning to scale LEAF production. It’s curious though that there are only 86 registered CARWINGS users worldwide participating in data sharing on the Internet site. So the big question is where are the thousands of LEAFs which have been produced? Are they on ships destined for the US or UK? Are they remaining in Japan for local sales? Are they destined for large fleet buyers? I’m pretty sure they aren’t on the road as yet.
I don’t know if CARWINGS is standard in Japan. Also, I don’t know how many have actually been sold in Japan. I think Nissan is holding inventory pending a rush of orders prior to the end of the federal tax incentive. Just my guess.
I ordered my Leaf at the end of January and thought it would be delivered in June or July. I just got an email from Nissan stating that my car will be delivered in April. Production and delivery to California must be improving. Now I need to get my Blink Level 2 charging station installed.
John
John – welcome to Living LEAF. We anticipate a ramp-up in deliveries to the U.S. in the April/May time frame. Early production was retained in Japan as their government tax incentive is due to expire in March. Congratulations on your delivery date!