Rising Nissan Leaf Prices in UK Blamed on Falling Pound

When Nissan U.K. announced a stiff 6.9 percent price hike recently for the Leaf EV to be sold throughout its territory, the stated reasons were currency exchange fluctuations and raw material price increases.

We reported same on Friday, but questioned whether currency issues contributed much as other Nissan models sold over there hadn't gone up nearly as much - under 2 percent on average.

Could the culprit be raw material prices that would bleed over into the cost of Leafs in other countries, we wondered.

Well, Nissan Motor Great Britain spokesman Tom Barnard got back to us this morning with a bit more detail and, it appears, the currency exchange rate really is at the bottom of it all.

The British pound has depreciated against the yen by 13.4 percent in the past 10 months, he said, affecting the Leaf more than other Nissan models because the EV is built in Japan and imported while 80 percent of the remaining Nissan models sold in the U.K. are built there and thus "not subject to the same exchange rate fluctuation."

Nissan passed on part of the cost difference for the Leaf via the 6.9 percent price hike and - so far - is eating the rest of the increased cost of bringing the electric car to Britain.

As part of its effort to grapple with the strengthening yen, Barnard said, Nissan Great Britain also discontinued sales of the Cube multi-purpose vehicle, which also was being imported from Japan.

The lesson here? Don't take currency speculation advice from us!

Nissan is building a Leaf assembly and battery plant in England - due to open in 2013 - and will at that point the EV's price won't be at the mercy of currency fluctuations, Barnard said.

Nissan North America spokesman Tim Gallagher told us last week that there are no plans afoot to raise U.S, prices.

The huge Leaf and EV battery complex the company is building at its Smyrna, Tenn. manufacturing campus is due to open late next year.

Source: edmunds.com