LONDON: Nissan has released cheering sales figures for its Leaf electric car, reporting that European sales for the zero emission vehicle jumped 33 per cent last year to 14,650 units.
The company said that despite growing competition from rival manufacturers as a host of firms brought new electric cars to market, the Leaf secured a 26 per cent share of a European market that saw over 56,000 electric vehicles (EVs) purchased last year, making it the market leader.
According to the new figures, the Renault Zoe was in second place with 11,227 models sold across Europe and the Tesla Model S came in third with 8,734 new customers.
“We can now see the impact that word of mouth is having on our sales, with 95 per cent of our customers happy to recommend their car to a friend and 50 per cent saying they would never go back to diesel or petrol,” said Nissan Europe senior vice president of sales and marketing Guillaume Cartier, in a statement. “This kind of powerful advocacy, combined with an increasing awareness of the massive running cost savings electric car driver’s experience, is why our Nissan Leaf sales continue to grow.”
Cartier also argued that long-standing concerns over so-called ‘range anxiety’, whereby electric vehicle motorists fear running out of power, were proving largely unfounded. “Data from our CarWings telematics system shows us that Nissan Leaf drivers drive 40 per cent more kilometres than the European average for petrol or diesel cars, covering over 16,500 km per year,” he said. “This data demonstrates that this car is the primary car for many households and that is changing the consumer perception of electric cars.”
The sales performance in the UK, where Nissan has located its European manufacturing hub for the Leaf, was particularly encouraging for the company.
Sales of the Leaf to British customers more than doubled from 1,812 in 2013 to 4,051 last year. “The British-built Nissan Leaf remains the nation’s electric model of choice, boasting 55 per cent of the pure EV market and outselling its nearest competitor by more than 2:1,” the company said in a statement.
