Nissan ( (NSANF) ) is determined to expand its presence in the electric vehicle market.
And to do this, the legacy carmaker recently announced a strategic plan providing for 2 trillion yen in investments ($17.6 billion) over the next five years to accelerate the deployment of its electric vehicles.
This ambitious plan includes the launch of 23 new electrified models by 2030, half of which will be 100% electric. Overall Nissan expects 50% of Nissan and Infiniti brand sales to be generated by electric vehicles by the end of the decade. In the United States, Nissan is less ambitious as it only expects 40% of its sales to be generated by sales of electric vehicles by 2040. Nissan plans to sell 1 million electrified vehicles annually by 2023, including EVs and vehicles with e-power electrified powertrains.
"We want to transform Nissan to become a sustainable company that is truly needed by customers and society," CEO Makoto Uchida said on November 29, 2021.
The Leaf's Future Is Uncertain
It is quite possible that the Leaf sedan, currently the only electric car that Nissan markets in the United States, will not be part of this future. Indeed, this pioneer vehicle of electric vehicles could be at the end of its life. The Japanese car manufacturer appears to have decided to bury it according to Automotive News.
Nissan does not plan to introduce a new generation of Leaf and could simply discontinue the nameplate says Automotive, citing three unnamed sources. Production of the current generation Leaf will end in the middle of the current decade. The automaker wants to respond to the tastes of consumers who focus on SUVs and less on small sedans and city cars.
Contacted by TheStreet, Nissan has neither confirmed nor denied this information.
“We are seeing renewed interest in LEAF with the increased demand for EVs and its overall value proposition," company spokesperson Josh Clifton said in an emailed statement. "Since its launch, Leaf has consistently delivered strong customer satisfaction and new buyers to Nissan.”
Unveiled in 2010, the Nissan Leaf became the first affordable mass electric car on the planet. It had a range of around 117 km (73 miles) when it debuted. But in 2015, the manufacturer equipped the car with a battery with a capacity of 30 kWh, giving it an autonomy of 135 km (84 miles) on one charge. Newer models have even longer ranges.
The Replacement for the Leaf
The second generation of the model was a game changer for the Leaf, which had to face rivals like the Chevrolet Bolt or the electric Hyundai Kona, not to mention Teslas. The autonomy of 243 km (151 miles) of the basic version and the possible autonomy of 363 km (226 miles) of the version equipped with a 62 kWh battery allowed Nissan to target customers reluctant to switch to electric vehicles.
Nissan admits that sales have been falling for a few years and that the new generation has not achieved the expected success. For its tenth anniversary in 2020, Nissan revealed that it had sold 500,000 copies worldwide since the launch of the Leaf. At the time the group said that 148,000 of these 500,000 vehicles had been sold in the United States. Today, that figure has climbed to 170,000 Leafs sold in the United States.
The Leaf is one of the most affordable electric vehicles on the market. The base price of the Refresh Model Year 2023 Nissan Leaf is $35,800. By comparison, the Model 3, Tesla's entry-level sedan costs at least $46,990, GM's Chevrolet Bolt starts at $34,700.
Produced at plants in the U.S. Japan, and the U.K., the Leaf is sold in 59 markets around the world.
Who to replace the Leaf in the Nissan family?
Nissan plans to launch the Ariya crossover/SUV that can travel 300 miles on a single charge soon at an initial price of $47,000, which eliminates it as a potential replacement for the Leaf.
The Chill-Out concept car, a kind of compact SUV of which we still have few details, could be the ideal replacement because Nissan plans to assemble it on its CMF-EV platform dedicated to its small vehicles.
