Nissan to expand next-gen Leaf sales to seven new markets

Nissan confirmed this week that it is expanding the reach of its next-generation Leaf to seven markets in Asia and Oceania by the end of the year.

The automaker made the announcement at its ‘Nissan Futures’ event in Singapore yesterday.

The markets in question are Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

Furthermore, Nissan confirmed that it is also exploring introducing the zero-emission car in other markets in the region, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

Nissan launched the new Leaf in September 2017. Deliveries started in Japan a month later and now the new electric vehicle is available in the US, Canada, and Europe.

The Japanese automaker says that it will be in 60 markets this year.

Electrek’s Take

As Seth and I discussed in a recent episode of the Electrek Podcast, we think that Nissan became complacent with the Leaf over the years. They took a long time to redesign the vehicle and now it feels like they are only catching up in terms of specs, instead of leading the way.

But they still have price going for them.

Starting at $30,000 before incentives in the US, it comes down significantly lower than GM’s Chevy Bolt EV and Tesla’s Model 3, especially since Tesla hasn’t started to sell the base version of the Model 3.

After incentives and with leases available starting at $229 per month, the new Leaf can come down to a reasonable price. You can check with your local Nissan dealer for Leaf inventory.

Depending on how the vehicle is priced in those new markets, it could likely take advantage of the same position in the segment.