"Many LEAF enthusiasts are under the impression that most reservations become full-fledged purchases. But according to the real figures, that isn’t the case.
Nissan did in fact have 20,000customers who put down a $99 non-refundable deposit for the vehicle, but the number of people that are actually showing up to purchase their reserved EV is far less. Experts say that only 4 in 10 people, who reserved the LEAF, are actually following through and purchasing it. This puts the average number of LEAF vehicles at less than 10,000 moved for the first year.
Automotive industry experts say that this 40% fulfillment rate that Nissan is currently seeing is about average. The first wave of sales was limited to a handful of states including California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Tennessee.
“It’s about what I expected,” said Ed Kim, director of industry analysis at global automotive market research firm AutoPacific. “We thought there would be a significant number of drop outs because they took the Volt instead.”
General Motors has had less cancellations on the Volt, but the reason for that could be that their method of purchasing the vehicle is a little more binding. GM mandates that interested customers go through a dealer solely. GM has more of a committed process than the Nissan, which required individuals to visit their website and put $99 on their credit card."
Em: http://nissan-leaf.net/2011/02/19/repor ... purchases/