Sales of the Nissan LEAF remain incredibly soft in the U.S. and likely will stay that way as the competition continues to heat up.

With just 1,128 LEAFs sold in November and only 1,234 LEAF sold in October, sales of Nissan’s flagship EV had been soft. That came to an end in December when sales shot up to a reasonably solid 1,667 units. Then, Nissan sold just 717 LEAFs in January 2019 and in February 2019, Nissan sold just 654 LEAFs.

How low can it go?

 

Some truly hard times had seemingly set in for the Nissan LEAF in regards to the U.S. However, it seemed like a rebound was occurring. In March, Nissan reported 1,314 LEAF sales in the U.S. But the momentum was lost again in April as Nissan reported only 951 LEAF sales in the U.S. However, May saw a slight uptick in sales with Nissan reporting 1,216 LEAFs sold.

July did not improve

We had expected sales to increase in June with more LEAF Plus availability. However, that was not the case as sales again declined. In June, Nissan sold just 1,156 LEAFs. Now, with July behind us, we can report that Nissan sold only 938 LEAFs in the U.S. last month.

Though the automaker doesn't provide breakouts for the normal LEAF and LEAF Plus, we assume some (a small, but rising number) may be of the latter. Elsewhere around the globe, LEAF sales are mostly rising with the intro of the longer-range LEAF, but the same can't be said for here in the U.S. with sales now again dropping out of the four-digit range.

In terms of 2019 YTD figures, the LEAF now stands at 6,946, which is down compared to the 2018 YTD figure of 7,808.

It seems the LEAF has stalled out in the U.S. with the rise of longer range and comparably priced competition. Or perhaps everyone is spending a bit more to move up to the Tesla Model 3, Hyundai Kona Electric or Kia Niro EV.

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