Nissan LEAF Electric Vehicle To Be Discontinued?

Japanese automaker Nissan is contemplating on pulling the plug on its foremost electric vehicle offered in the international market since more than a decade, as per news sources. Is it the end of the road for the LEAF? Read on.

Nissan Motor Corporation, the Nishi-ku Yokohama-based multinational automobile maker launched the Nissan LEAF around 2009-10, the first mass-produced 100% electric vehicle in the world, the winner of multiple awards in Japan and across the globe.

However now, Nissan LEAF EV’s future seems to be in jeopardy. The latest round of breaking automotive news this time comes from the electric vehicle industry. If speculation and some sources are to be believed, Nissan is considering disconnecting its first electric vehicle, which debuted internationally much before Elon Musk founded Tesla electric car models were introduced to the world.

Nissan LEAF compact 5-door hatchback battery electric vehicle or BEV, made by Japan’s leading car maker Nissan, was first unveiled in Japan and the United States of America around December of 2010 and the second generation LEAF EV was launched in October of 2017.

Nissan will discontinue its small hatchback electric car "by the middle of the decade", as per a report by Automotive News magazine recently.

• Nissan officials did not immediately respond to news sources when requested for comments.

The 2022 Nissan LEAF update only got an exterior cosmetic job done, such as the Nissan branding has been added on the front grille, tail and the wheels. The LEAF 2022 model sports 16 & 17 inch Nissan alloy wheel choices. Apart from that it gets fresh, new external colour choices such as Magnetic Blue and Pearl Blue along with the existing 5 single-tone colour and five dual-tone options that are already available in the market.

The reason why it matters: is that electric vehicles are thought to be the future of the auto industry, but early models like the Nissan LEAF EV did not catch up very well with the masses across the international electric vehicle market.

• According to Mr Ivan Drury, an analyst at Edmunds, ”Leaf was an attempt to bring electrification to the general public and the mass EV market, but with the unconventional styling and limited distance coverage it actually never had a chance to become what it was meant to be.”

Flashback: After its world premiere in 2011, the all-electric Nissan LEAF car soon established itself as the world's best-selling electric vehicle.

• But, the Nissan EV soon gave up the crown position to Tesla electric cars and never had the chance to even come close to the vision of former Nissan Chief Executive Officer, Mr Carlos Ghosn which was to retail 5,00,000 electric car units a year by the end of 2013.

• Nissan managed to sell only 14,239 EV units of the LEAF electric car in the United States of America in 2021, a very small percentage of the 977,639 cars sold the same year by the Japanese company, headquartered in Kanagawa and Yokohama.

The bigger picture: Nissan's problems and the fate of its electric vehicle segment - The LEAF EV's difficulties were related to its short battery range and compact frame on the first Nissan EV version - a 2011 Leaf car model - with a distance range of just around 73 miles or 117 kilometres on a single charge.

• The distance coverage got better with time, however Nissan has since moved from that and centred much of its attention on future electric cars, such as the smooth and stylish all-electric Nissan ARIYA crossover SUV launch likely in 2022 or 2023.

• As fuel prices declined by the late years around 2010, the LEAF EV also fell victim to changing customer demand for Sport Utility Vehicles and trucks.

The bottom line: is that the LEAF electric car is on the verge of extinction, but electric vehicles are far from gone.

• "There will be a lot of new products coming out in the EV space that will be much better and enhanced with improved battery technology”, according to Ms Michelle Krebs, an analyst at Autotrader, to a news source.

Nissan LEAF history recap: In 2010, with plans for a limited global launch, Nissan had claimed that the LEAF would be the first affordable, mass market focused electric vehicle. According to Nissan, the LEAF back then ensured a range delivery of 100 miles or 161 kilometres of zero-emission, fully electric drive. And at that time the Nissan LEAF EV price in America was something like 25,000 USD which equals Rs 11,43,250 as per INR value in 2010, and approximately Rs 20 lakh currently in July 2022. And this distance range which Nissan claimed covers the purpose of ninety percent of motorists throughout the world.

Nissan Motor Company manufactures vehicles around the world. It is at present the 6th biggest automaker, just behind Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen. Nissan has marketed cars and sold other vehicles using a number of names, which also consists of the Datsun brand.

Though the Nissan LEAF is sold in many international EV markets across the globe, it is yet to be unveiled in India. The automaker had announced earlier that it would launch the electric vehicle in India, but the electric hatchback is yet to hit the Indian roads.

Besides the ARIYA EV and LEAF EV, the Nissan electric portfolio also features the Nissan Note e-POWER hatchback electric car with hybrid drivetrain.