Nissan LEAF Sales Overview In U.S. From 2010-2019

Will the new 62 kWh Nissan LEAF e+ renew the LEAF's position on the market?

By: Mark Kane

May 2, 2019 at 8:45am ET

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Nissan sold more than 133,000 Nissan LEAFs in the U.S., but the recent months and years were far from its best of times (2014).

As the new Nissan LEAF e+ enters the U.S. market, let's see how the best-selling electric car (cumulatively since 2010) is doing.

So far this year, Nissan sold just 3,636 LEAFs, including 951 in April. Not much compared to 3,000+ in peak months in the past.

LEAF sales in the U.S.:

2010:19
2011: 9,674
2012: 9,819
2013: 22,610
2014: 30,200
2015: 17,269
2016: 14,006
2017: 11,230
2018: 14,715
2019 (YTD): 3,636
Total: 133,178

If the average pace of LEAF sales does not increase, then 2019 will not be a good year for Nissan, but we believe there is a chance for at least 20,000 LEAFs when the e+ is be widely available.

In recent months, LEAFs share out of overall Nissan volume is about 2%, while in its peak 2014 year it was 4%.

What do you think?

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Comments

The Nissan LEAF was once the dominant model in the plug-in market, but after the initial period, followed by concerns about battery pack capacity fade and a delayed upgrade to higher capacity/range, the LEAF saw a gradual decrease in market share.

Currently, less than 5% of new plug-in sales are from Nissan, which is kind of a wasted opportunity. For example, when Toyota decided to go hybrid, it forever remained the biggest player in the hybrid segment.