Nissan Leaf, Buy One Now and Get It in 2012

Nissan Leaf was one of the highlights of the 2010 year end and, together with Chevrolet's Volt, it created quite a frenzy around the green car industry. Months before the Japanese manufacturer rolled out its Leaf, customers started asking preorders and, as far as Nissan was concerned, this was only a sign of success. More than 20,000 consumers have reserved their all-electric Nissan even before its debut, which made the parent carmaker pretty proud of it.

But what's happening now isn't exactly a thing to be proud of. Customers are facing multi-months delays, not only because Nissan can't produce so many Leafs, but also because it has limited the launch of the vehicle to seven states. All states should receive the Leaf by 2012, the company repeatedly said in late 2010 when it begun rolling out the car.

Brian Carolin, senior vice president for Nissan’s U.S. sales and marketing, told the Green Car Advisor that all customers who have ordered a Leaf in 2010 will get the vehicle by summer, although nobody can know for sure if such a thing is indeed going to happen.

"We have promised that everyone who has ordered a car will get it by the end of summer, and we are trying to accelerate that,” she said, trying to calm things down a little bit.

As for Japan, Nissan plans to sell some 6,000 units of the Leaf on the local market by the end of the fiscal 2010 ending 31 March, 2011. The numbers registered in the pre-ordering process, which started back in April, show that the respective target is well within reach.