Nissan LEAF Sales Projection Out of Touch With Reality?

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Nissan LEAF Sales Projection Out of Touch With Reality?

[IMG]http://www.plugincars.com/sites/default ... in-620.jpg[/IMG]
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn searches for a place to plug in the Nissan LEAF, during the groundbreaking ceremony for the company's lithium-ion battery plant in Smyrna, Tenn., in May 2010. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen looks on.

"Nissan's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Smryna, Tenn. will begin operations before 2012 comes to an end. Nissan projects that the $1.6-billion factory will be capable of pumping out 150,000 LEAFs and 200,000 lithium-ion battery modules per year.

At the ground-breaking ceremony for the facility, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said, "This is going to be a moneymaker." Nissan said there will be up to 1,300 new jobs when LEAF assembly operates at full capacity. A little more than two years after the ground-breaking, Nissan's plan to bring mass production capability to Tennessee—and its ability to sell anywhere 150,000 LEAFs per year for the foreseeable future—is being called into question.

"The demand for electric vehicles won't be anywhere near 200,000 before the end of this decade," said Michael Holman, research director for Lux Research. "And the entire global market for electric vehicles won't be a third of what Nissan is planning. This is all the result of industry market projections that just weren't realistic."

But Nissan's chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn continues to defend his bullish vision for electric vehicles. As Ghosn told reporters at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, "I think the capacity that we built is adequate for the potential we see for the mid-term for the United States. When we decided to make our investment in electric cars, we didn't take a very short-term perspective. We took a longer-term perspective."

Ghosn points to lack of charging infrastructure as the reason that EVs have not sold as well as expected so far. Nissan sold 9,674 LEAFs in 2011 and is tracking to sell fewer units in 2012. However, sales of plug-in hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, are on the rise."

Em: http://www.plugincars.com/nissan-leaf-s ... 24822.html