The Nissan Leaf Demand Is Outpacing Supply

2013 Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is selling so well that dealerships in some areas can’t get enough of them to satisfy local consumer demand. This is a big change from where the Nissan Leaf was just a year ago when low sales were making it a problem for Nissan.

Now, the car is selling so well that they’re running short on inventory and likely will continue to be short right through the summer. They are ramping up production of the Nissan Leaf at their plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, but expect that it will take until Fall for production to catch up with demand.

Just how much better is the Nissan Leaf selling than it was this time last year? It’s currently topping 2,000 units a month which is quadruple the volume from a year ago.

Part of the challenge in meeting demand is that the geography of the electric vehicle market is changing. The West coast once dominated the market with about 37% of all Nissan Leaf sales coming from California alone. West coast cities like San Francisco and Seattle added to the region’s market domination.

Now, California accounts for just 27% of all Nissan Leaf sales. That’s still a big chunk, but at 10% less than last year is a significant drop. It’s not that sales are down overall, but that they’ve gone up in places as diverse as Dallas, Atlanta, and even Chicago. The Atlanta area now ranks at #3 in the market for the Nissan Leaf, but had only a nine-day supply of the vehicles back in June.

The increase in sales of the Nissan Leaf is in large part due to a $6,000 price cut that took effect in January and brought the vehicle’s sticker down to about $28,000. Tax credits could knock as much as another $10,000 off that price making it down right affordable.

Nissan also has plans to expand the charging infrastructure in the US which should help remove one of the big obstacles for those thinking of purchasing electric cars and help sales volume continue to grow.

Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.