Although pricing for the upcoming Nissan Leaf remains competitive, Nissan fears that the price point will eventually change. Currently, government incentives help bring the cost of the vehicle down, but there’s no guarantee that those sales subsidies will be offered indefinitely.
Many of the current subsidies have an expiration date, after which time the consumer would be left to pay the full price of the vehicle. The new Leaf is priced from $32,780 in the U.S., but with federal tax credit that price would be reduced to $25,580.
Europe will also offer incentives for the vehicle, to help consumers choose more fuel-efficient transportation. But with a major debt crisis brewing across the pond, there will need to be plenty of cuts to help deal with the significant amount of aid being handed out to some struggling EU governments. Sadly, that could put EV subsidies on the chopping block.
Although government incentives will continue to play a huge role in the success of the EV, Nissan is banking on new technology and savings on transport and import duties to continually push costs down. Even with subsidies, Nissan CT concedes the Leaf won’t be for every buyer.
“Between these savings, technology improvements and economies of scale as production ramps up, we should be able to avoid losing money even as incentives are phased out,” said Pierre Loing, Nissan vice president for product planning.
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