Nissan Has Third Consecutive Impressive Sales Month In May

How times change.

Nissan Worker Assembles 2013 LEAF Battery In Smyrna, TN

A year ago, Nissan was languishing under an oppressive yen and the excessive costs of importing the LEAF from Japan for sale into America, which made the LEAF a very difficult proposition to sell to US consumers.

Now with the 2013 version of the Nissan LEAF (with "over 100 improvements") made in Smyrna, TN, and a subsequent entry level model (S) that comes in more than $6,000 cheaper at $28,800, sales have turned around in a big way.

For May, 2,138 LEAFs were sold, the EV's second best result of all-time. May's result is also a over 300% improvement over 2012, when only 510 LEAFs were sold.

Year to day, the electric Nissan is up to 7,614 units, which is an improvement of 191% over 2012.

Also of interest, sales through May marks the first time since 2011 that the LEAF has outsold the Chevrolet Volt in the calender year. 7,614 vs 7,157

Looking ahead, June also looks to be another strong month for Nissan with the LEAF, as the Smyrna facility once again could not keep up with national demand and dealer inventory on the car actually fell by about 500 units during the month to around 2,000 available cars.

Many dealers that do have some LEAF supply available are also reporting that the S model of the LEAF is selling at a greater rate than Nissan had anticipated, and that those cars are currently the most needed at the dealership level.