As sales of the Nissan LEAF continue to branch out to other countries, the best-selling electric vehicle of all time has claimed another major milestone—topping the 50,000-sales mark for global deliveries.
According to Nissan Dealer Pleasanton, the benchmark is yet another highlight to LEAF’s international success story, which has seen owners rack up more than 160 million miles of all-electric, zero-emission travel. That’s enough to get from the earth to the sun and the most of the way back, too. The individual leader? A driver in Japan, who has owned a LEAF for just two years, already has exceeded 108,000 miles.
Here in the United States, production has started on the 2013 LEAF—in Smyrna, Tennessee—with the vehicle expected to go on sale at the end of this month featuring a new net price that can be well under $20,000: The LEAF S, a fresh addition to the lineup, will be stickered from $28,800; less the federal government’s $7,500 tax credit, bringing the net cost to $21,300. In states like California, which provides an additional EV rebate of $2,500, the post-incentive price of the LEAF falls to $18,800.
The folks at Used Cars In Bremerton pointed out that’s less expensive than many traditionally powered compact cars, and the LEAF builds on that advantage because its drivers don’t have to pay for gasoline.
And as an added bonus, Nissan engineers also have further fine-tuned the 2013 LEAF, lowering its already slippery coefficient of drag to a mere 0.28 and delivering a noticeable improvement in the vehicle’s range. Nissan hasn’t actually revealed the new numbers yet, but as a baseline, the 2012 model came with an EPA-certified range of 73 miles, combined with miles per gallon equivalent ratings of 106 MPGe city/92 MPGe highway/99 MPGe combined.
While there’s still time, get to Nissan Dealers CT and bring home the 50,001st LEAF. True, it won’t be the 50,000th, but it will never be second best.
