Nissan to launch 3 new electric cars on the Japanese market as it reaches 100,000 Leaf deliveries

Nissan Leaf sales have been jolted back to life in the automaker’s home market after the launch of the latest generation of the all-electric vehicle.

The company now confirms having sold over 100,000 Leafs in Japan since original  launch and are preparing to launch 3 more EVs in the market.

The first generation of the Leaf was launched in Japan in 2010 and now they have delivered over 320,000 units all over the world, including 100,000 in the home market of Japan alone.

Asako Hoshino, senior vice president at Nissan and head of the Operations Committee for Japan, made the announcement today:

We’re excited to reach the 100,000-vehicle milestone for sales of the Nissan LEAF in our home market of Japan, and this wouldn’t have been possible without our customers, who have embraced this great car. The era of electric vehicles is here. As a technology leader, Nissan will continue to work on Nissan Intelligent Mobility initiatives to deliver products and services that exceed customer expectations.

But the Leaf has been Nissan’s flagship EV for so long without any other passenger electric car from the Japanese brand.

Last year, the Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi alliance announced that it will launch 12 new all-electric vehicles within the next 5 years.

Now, Nissan specifically says that it will itself launch “3 new EVs and 5 new e-POWER models in Japan by 2022.”

Daniele Schillaci, Nissan’s executive vice president for global marketing, sales and zero-emission vehicles, made the announcement in line with their M.O.V.E goals and a new retail strategy:

As our domestic market, we are proud that Japan is leading the way forward when it comes to Nissan Intelligent Mobility. This vision is changing the customer experience by delivering technologies and services that are making their lives better and also enabling steady profitable growth through Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022.

The company reiterated its goal to sell 1 million electrified vehicles (e-POWER and EVs) globally per year by the end of the plan.

Electrek’s Take

As we previously discussed, we are not fans of Nissan ‘e-POWER’ vehicles at Electrek because they are only hybrids without a plug and therefore, they are entirely powered by gas.

It’s disappointing to see them appear more focused on this kind of powertrain than all-electric ones, but those 3 new EVs will certainly be welcomed on the market nonetheless.

A new passenger EV after the Leaf is long overdue and we are excited to see what Nissan can do with a different form factor.

Details are scarce right now, but they have been talking about an all-electric Leaf crossover coming to production based on IMx concept.

We also took the new Leaf on a road trip in Southern California this week and I will be posting my impression of the vehicle either later today or tomorrow.