Nissan is waving the white flag on the Leaf’s US situation. They are not killing it off. They are however rethinking selling it.
The TV commercial wars and the constant stabs at the way the Chevrolet Volt also has a traditional internal combustion engine couldn’t have done it much good.
Nissan are now admitting to their mistake (not necessarily on this front) and their marketing department is going to drop the arrogance.
They are finally ready to admit that adoption of electric vehicles is still something hard to stomach in most conditions.
As a result, they’ve ordered their dealers to re-think the way they find customers for the Leaf. They need to drop the traditional way of thinking and focus in closer on their specific market.
Since EVs are still a niche market, you can’t expect people to simply reply to tv ads or conventional media of any sorts.
What this means is that dealers will need to put in more time to find new customers for the Leaf. They must be in a region where the EV infrastructure is at least developed.
Aside from the already well known benefits of the Nissan Leaf, moving more of its production to inside the US should also help get customers to at least test the Leaf.
That’s something the Japanese brand was counting on when they ramped up production. Their current target is to double the sales from the current 1500 units a year maximum they got so far.
