Nissan Sees Leaf Sales Doubling as Factory Begins Production
Nissan Motor Co. (7201), Japan’s second- largest carmaker, will overcome a slowdown in deliveries of its all-electric Leaf vehicle, doubling U.S. sales to 20,000 during its current fiscal year, the vice chairman of its U.S. unit said.
A new plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, will be ready to make the cars in December, helping boost supply before the fiscal year ends in March, Nissan’s Bill Krueger said in an interview yesterday in Los Cabos, Mexico, where he was visiting for the B-20 business summit. The automaker also is expanding sales nationally after beginning in seven states, he said.
Leaf sales have dropped the past two months, trailing General Motors Co. (GM)’s rechargeable Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)’s plug-in Prius in May. Volt deliveries more than tripled to 1,680 units in May, while Leaf sales fell 55 percent to 510. The Leaf is made in a single plant in Japan.
“We’ve had to fulfill demand from one plant globally,” Krueger said. “Once we localize it in December, the second half of the fiscal year is when we’ll see most of the supply, demand be available.”
Japan’s three largest automakers are producing vehicles in North America at a rate indicating each will set records this year.
Nissan made 1.18 million in the U.S. and Mexico last year, its highest volume to date, and may make as many as 1.35 million at the current rate.
To contact the reporters on this story: Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5@bloomberg.net; Jose Enrique Arrioja in Mexico City at jarrioja@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
Nissan Sees Leaf Sales Doubling as Factory Begins Production
Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf electric vehicle.
Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf electric vehicle. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Krueger, vice chairman of Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. unit, talks about the outlook for the company's all-electric Leaf vehicle, its green initiatives and strategy in Latin America. Nissan will overcome a slowdown in deliveries of the Leaf, doubling U.S. sales to 20,000 during its current fiscal year, Krueger said. He spoke with Bloomberg's Crayton Harrison and Jose Enrique Arrioja in Los Cabos, Mexico, where he was visiting for the B-20 business summit. (Source: Bloomberg)
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