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The Nissan LEAF received a lot of attention on Earth Day, 2013. Nissan News reports that the LEAF is part of a New York City Taxi program that is just getting underway. From Nissan News:
“To celebrate Earth Day, Nissan and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today launched a new electric vehicle taxi pilot with the world’s best-selling electric car, Nissan LEAF. This pilot program, which puts six LEAF taxis into service beginning this spring, will help Nissan, the city, the taxi industry and the public understand how zero emission vehicles can be integrated into future taxi fleets.
Joe Castelli, vice president, Nissan Commercial Vehicles said: “As part of our commitment to zero emission vehicles for the mass-market, Nissan is looking for ways to broaden the use of electric cars, including commercial applications like taxis. Following the selection of Nissan NV200 as New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow, our relationship with the city provides us the ultimate proving ground to conduct this LEAF taxi pilot to help optimize the use of electric vehicle technology for future applications.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: “Even though the Taxi of Tomorrow won’t be on the road for another six months, we’re already looking ahead to the taxi of the day after tomorrow. Nissan’s proven track record with electric vehicles will put us ahead of the curve in helping us answer important questions about incorporating electric taxis into the fleet so that we can achieve the goal of a one-third electric taxi fleet by 2020.”
As part of the pilot, Nissan and partners in New York City will also install several CHAdeMO-based DC quick chargers, which will enable drivers to re-charge their electric taxis quickly during their shift. With quick charging, Nissan LEAF can be recharged to about 80 percent in under 30 minutes.
Now in its third model year, Nissan LEAF is the world’s best-selling pure electric vehicle with nearly 60,000 cumulative sales worldwide. For 2013, LEAF features numerous customer-focused upgrades and is now being assembled at Nissan’s plant in Smryna, Tenn. LEAF is powered by a responsive 80kW AC synchronous motor produced at Nissan’s Powertrain Assembly plant in Decherd, Tenn., with energy supplied by an advanced 48-module lithium-ion battery assembled at Nissan’s new battery plant in Smyrna.”
Nissan Sales Numbers for April Report 23.2% Increase
Nissan reports a whopping increase of sales in April — 23.2% increase. Yes, you read that correctly: 23.2%! From Nissan News:
“Nissan North America, Inc. today reported April U.S. sales of 87,847 units versus 71,329 units a year earlier, up 23.2 percent. Nissan Division sales rose 24.6 percent for the month at 80,003 units, driven by retail sales gains by top-selling models like Altima, Pathfinder, Sentra and Rogue. Sales of Infiniti vehicles were up 10 percent over the prior year, to 7,844 units.
The highlights for the Nissan brand include:
-Nissan Division posted 80,003 sales, an increase of 24.6 percent over last April’s 64,200 unit total.
-Sales of Nissan Altima rose 35.4 percent to 21,991, driven by a 42 percent increase in retail deliveries.
-Nissan Rogue crossover sales set a new April record at 11,904 units, an increase of 39 percent over the prior April.
-Nissan Pathfinder sales were up 214.7 percent to 6,473, setting a new April record and marking the sixth consecutive month it posted an increase in deliveries of at least 145 percent. Pathfinder sales are up 180.9 percent in 2013.
-Sales of the all-electric Nissan LEAF jumped 423.5 percent to 1,937, spurred by the move of vehicle assembly to Nissan’s vehicle and battery assembly facilities in Smyrna, Tenn., as well as a substantial price repositioning to include a wider range of trim levels and added value. Year-to-date, LEAF sales are up more than 160 percent.
-The all-new Nissan Sentra posted a 44.9 percent sales increase, at 10,734 deliveries.
Jose Munoz, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing – Nissan Americas commented that “April was a very good sales month for the Nissan division, not only from an overall volume standpoint where we were up more than 24 percent, but also in retail where our sales rose more than 32 percent.”
“In the first quarter of 2013, we improved our retail sales by more than 4 percent while reducing deliveries to fleet customers by more than 17 percent. We continued this trend in April with retail up 29 percent and fleet mix down over four percentage points from one year ago, which proves that our new products such as Altima, Sentra and Pathfinder are taking strong hold in the marketplace.”
“Our strong performance in April was driven largely by double and even triple digit increases on some of our core products, such as Altima up more than 35 percent, Sentra up nearly 45 percent, Rogue up 39 percent and the all-new Pathfinder up over 214 percent.”
“We expect to have gained market share in April due to our strong retail performance, which we have full intention to continue through the summer months given the building momentum that we are seeing with Altima, Sentra and Pathfinder in particular.”
“With a strong April building on a record-breaking March, Nissan LEAF sales are now up over 160 percent year-to-date. The wider array of trim levels and lower price driven by the start of U.S. LEAF production at our Smyrna plant are bringing more new customers to our showrooms every day.”
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