Will New Nissan LEAF Be #1 Best Selling Car In Norway This Year?

February 17th, 2018 by Steve Hanley

The new Nissan LEAF is soon going to be flying out of Nissan showrooms in Norway. In fact, it is selling so well, it could wind up being the best selling car in Norway in 2018. Not just the best selling electric car — the best selling car, period. Last year, the Volkswagen e-Golf was the best selling electric car in the country, with 6,639 finding new homes. As of February 15 of this year, 7,100 Nissan LEAFs have been sold already (that is, ordered — the new LEAF isn’t being delivered yet). That’s an average of more than 150 cars a day, 7 days a week.

The #1 selling car in Norway in 2017 was the Volkswagen Golf (55% of them being the e-Golf and 20% being the plug-in hybrid Golf GTE). The BMW i3 was the 2nd best selling car in Norway in 2017. The Toyota RAV4 was #3. And here’s a shocker: the Tesla Model X was #4. The Tesla Model S was also in the top 10, nabbing the #8 position.

The Nissan LEAF probably just needs 13,000 or so deliveries in 2018 to take the gold medal home.

“I do not want to get into any specific sales goals,” Anders Mamen Lund, Nissan’s CEO for Norway tells Side3 News, “but the interest is huge.” He fully expects the LEAF to be the top selling electric car in a country that has fully embraced electric transportation. With a little luck, it could outsell every other car in the market.

Side3 put the question to Lund directly. “With such a sales rate, is it jumping to conclusions to say this is going to be Norway’s best-selling car, and not just an electric car, this year? After all, there are still 10 months left in the year.” Lund tried to avoid being too optimistic. “Those are your words and your analysis must stand on its own. That being said, we will not contradict you. We will spend some more time analyzing figures and sales goals, but we are very pleased with the sales trend so far.”

But how long must customers in Norway wait for their cars? Not to worry, Lund says. “We can deliver your Leaf so you get a new car for the Easter vacation,” he says.”We Norwegians like to have the top edition with a lot of equipment and ‘tailoring ‘ in regard to options, colors, and such things. On special orders, there is a longer delivery time, but not very long. We are talking about July/August on those cars.

The new LEAF is manufactured in Nissan’s Sunderland factory in the UK, which Lund says can respond quickly to an increase in demand. There won’t be any long waiting lines for the LEAF, he assured Side3. Interesting how he refers to the Tesla Model 3, which is a year or so away from being delivered to Norwegian customers, without ever mentioning it by name. Judging by the photos above, especially of the new car’s interior, the 2018 Nissan LEAF is a very tasty crumpet indeed. No wonder it is selling so well. The question may be, “How could the Nissan LEAF not be the best selling car in Norway in 2018?”

Hat tip to Leif Hansen









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