Nissan says the new Leaf is ‘the fastest selling electric vehicle in Europe’

The next generation Nissan Leaf unveiled last year didn’t feature all the new upgrades that were expected, but it kept its relatively low price.

Nissan now says that it made it ‘the fastest selling electric vehicle in Europe.’

In the US, the vehicle’s sales still haven’t increased since the launch of the new generation yet.

The Japanese automaker only delivered 895 Leafs in the US last month.

But it’s not the case in Europe.

The company reported yesterday:

In just over a month since the new Nissan LEAF officially went on sale, Nissan has confirmed that it has received over 20,000 orders across Europe for the latest model. That is one sold every 12 minutes, making it the fastest-selling electric vehicle in Europe.

It’s not clear how Nissan is accounting for those orders since the company actually delivered fewer than 4,000 Leafs in Europe last month.

Either way, the vehicle is finding some success on the old continent where Nissan says that it achieves a range of 168 miles on a single charge under the new WLTP standard.

Nissan compared it with the less accurate NEDC standard:

“The new Nissan LEAF is the first EV to undergo WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Procedure) and delivers a range of up to 168 miles on the Combined Cycle, or up to 258 miles in city conditions, on a single charge. For comparison with other EVs or previous generation LEAFs, the model is also rated to 235 miles on the outgoing NEDC test.”

In the US, the new Leaf gets an EPA-rated range of 151 miles.

Electrek’s Take

While the demand in Europe is impressive, I feel like many Leaf fans in the US and elsewhere are waiting for the next version of the vehicle.

A leak earlier this year showed that Nissan is planning to add a new powertrain to the next-gen Leaf in the 2019 version.

The new version of the vehicle would feature a 60 kWh battery pack as expected, but also a new 160 kW electric motor and 11 to 22 kW onboard charger.

The new battery pack would also be widely different from Nissan’s previous battery pack technology. It is expected to be equipped with cells from LG instead of AESC, Nissan’s own battery company which they sold this summer, and a new thermal management system.

Those changes are also expected to enable a higher DC fast-charging rate of “~100 kW.”

This new version should be unveiled in the next few months for a launch by the end of the year and it should make the Leaf more competitive with the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt EV.

Here’s Fully Charged recent review of the new 2018 Leaf: