Nissan Australia is preparing its dealer network for the arrival of the Leaf EV by mid-2019.
Speaking to AutoTalk at the Leaf unveiling last week, corporate PR manager Tony Mee says the company is leaving it to dealers to determine how hard and fast they sell.
“It’s very much dealer driven; we’re offering all dealers an opportunity to take cars for the business, if they want to sell Leaf they can,” he says.
“We’re basically saying ‘if you want to sell Leaf, we’ll make it happen’.”
Nissan has declared 89 dealers, 62 in metropolitan areas and 27 in provincial cities, will stock Leaf – a far cry from the 12 dealers that held the original first-gen EV in 2012.
“The world’s a different place to what it was when the first Leaf came here,” Mee explains, “There’s more conversation and more interest in the market place wanting to purchase an EV.”
Mee says despite the rising popularity of EVs, which have grown from 93 in September 2017 to 160 in September 2018, Leaf won’t get the marketing fanfare of the established Nissan internal combustion products.
“Leaf is still due for mid-2019 and it will absolutely get the support it needs to push it (to customers) across the country,” Mee explains.
But he says “core models” like Navara and X-Trail will take priority because “the volume against Qashai for example isn’t there.”
Mee acknowledges Leaf “is our halo product for Nissan Intelligent Mobility, and we want to give it every chance”.
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