Nissan Expects All-Electric Leaf To Be Profitable

Nissan All-Electric Leaf

Nissan Motor Co. said on Thursday it is on track to book 25,000 U.S. orders for its Leaf electric vehicle by the end of the year and the automaker will be making money on the green car.

Orders in Europe are set to start in June with deliveries beginning before the end of the year.

Nissan has taken 8,000 U.S. reservations for the hatchback, set to go on sale in the United States in December, since it started taking orders nine days ago, Mark Perry, Nissan's North America director of product planning and strategy, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference.

"We are on a double time march (for launch)," Perry said. "We are on our way to have 25,000 firm orders by December."

Nissan's U.S. launch of the car will start in California, Arizona, Washington, Tennessee and Oregon. The automaker also is launching the car in Japan and Europe in late 2010. The first European markets to get the Leaf will be the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal and Monaco.

Production of the Leaf will start in Japan and later at plants in the United States and the UK.

Leaf sales will be capacity restrained in the first two years until the U.S. plant comes on line, Perry said.

The five-passenger car is designed to provide a 100 mile (about 160km) range on a full charge and is priced at $32,780 -- not including federal tax credits or other incentives.

"We are making money at the price that we announced," Perry said. "We priced the car to be affordable. We priced it for mass adoption."

Nissan is counting on electric cars to help it close the gap on rivals led by Toyota Motor Corp. and its gasoline-electric Prius, the world's most popular hybrid.

Federal tax credits of $7,500 will cut the Leaf's retail price to about 10 percent over the $23,000 starting price for a Prius. Federal tax credits have been phased out for the Prius. State incentives could cut the cost further. In California, the top U.S. alternative car market, credits could reduce the Leaf price to $20,280.

In European markets such as Ireland the tax credit is 5,000 euros (about $6,650).

Source: Automotive News