Volt Sales Surge, LEAF Sales Tumble

The Nissan LEAF is the best selling electric car in the world. But for how long? Nissan has been selling essentially the same car since 2010. We have readers here at Gas2 who drive a LEAF and say it is basically a pretty good car. But it is desperately in need of a refresh.

Way back in 2010, Nissan and Chevrolet thought an electric car should look different. People should be able to look at it and know right away it is an electric car just the way people can instantly identify a Toyota Prius as a hybrid. That strategy works great for early adopters, but the long term goal is to attract mainstream drivers to the world of electric cars.

Chevrolet realized that pretty quickly. It pushed forward with a second generation Volt that has far greater range and a body that looks very much like its four door sedan cousin, the Chevy Cruze. Chevy sold 1,901 Volts last month, an increase of 17.5% compared to May of last year. So far this year, 7,871 Volts have found new owners compared to only 4,397 in the same period in 2015. True, some of that is because Chevrolet announced an updated Volt was coming and some put off their purchase until the new car arrived.

But over at Nissan, sales of the LEAF have gone over a cliff. So far this year, Nissan has sold only 4,697 examples of the all electric LEAF. That is down almost 40% from last year, when 7,742 of them were sold. In May, only 979 LEAFs left showrooms — a drop of 53.5% from last year. Bear in mind the LEAF now features an upgraded battery with 107 miles of range versus 83 miles for the original. But its design, never that appealing to begin with, now looks frumpy and outdated.

As much as we like the Chevy Volt around here, its sales are hardly enough to get excited about. Not when 373,000 people worldwide have plunked down $1,000 a piece to reserve a Tesla Model 3, a car that isn’t even available yet. Why is Chevrolet only selling thousands of Volts when Tesla is projected to sell ten times as many cars? That’s a question executives at both companies should be giving plenty of thought to.

What reasons do you think explain the mania for Tesla cars versus the fairly tepid market response Chevrolet and Nissan have experienced? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

Source: EV Obsession