According to Nissan, once its new factory in Smyrna, Tennessee begins production in December, the number of LEAF EVs sold will go up quickly enough for the company to reach its goal of selling at least 20,000 during its current fiscal year (which ends in March). The Smyrna plant is a big deal, with a capacity of 200,000 LEAFs per year and 150,000 battery packs (presumably for upcoming electric models).
Why would that change anything? Well, right now all LEAFs are made in a single plant in Japan, and this limited production is only sold in certain regions of the world and certain states in the US. Nissan bets that with more supply, it’ll be able to have LEAFs available nationally in the US and ramp up the roll out around the world, leading to higher much higher total sales. After all, demand isn’t the only important part of the equation.. If the supply isn’t there, there can be a lot of unmet demand.
It’ll also be interesting to see how future upgrades to the LEAF will boost sales (ie. a better battery pack leading to a longer driving range).
But we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Via Bloomberg
See also: Tesla Model S Gets Official EPA Ratings: 265 Miles Range and 89 MPGe Efficiency
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