Report: Nissan Leaf priced at U.S. $38,500+ in Japan
 

03-17-2010 06:00 PM

Filed under: Concept Cars, Japan, Nissan, Electric

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog....fla_01_opt.jpg
Interest in, and "pre-orders" for, the Nissan Leaf remains high, but a report from the Japanese newspaper the Mainichi Shimbun might put a damper on things. Apparently, the price for the all-electric car in Japan will be somewhere between 3.5 million and 4 million yen, which is about $38,667 to $44,191 U.S. at today's exchange rates. Granted, even if these prices are accurate, they certainly don't automatically equal the MSRP for the U.S. market, but they are higher than what we've been expecting - i.e., under $30,000 after the $7,500 federal tax credit. We went and looked at the prices for a couple of other cars in Japan, to see how the Leaf's 3.5 million compares. The Toyota Prius runs between 2.0 and 3.27 million yen ($22k-36k USD). The Honda Insight? From 1.89 to 2.2 million ($21k-24.4k USD).

We suspect that Nissan's going to have to do better than this to beat the Chevrolet Volt. Yes, yes, we know the powertrains are quite different, but a lot of people are going to learn about these cars at the same time (late this year), and we believe that the pure electric will need to be quite a bit cheaper than the plug-in hybrid to hold its own.

Of course, all of these numbers should be taken with several grains of salt. We reached out to Nissan, and they reminded us that "the article out of Japan is speculative, and we have no comment. As you know, we have yet to disclose Nissan Leaf pricing in the U.S. or in any global market." Thanks to Scott W. for the tip!


Gallery: Quick Spin: Nissan Leaf Test Mule

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog...._thumbnail.jpghttp://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog...._thumbnail.jpghttp://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog...._thumbnail.jpghttp://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog...._thumbnail.jpghttp://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog...._thumbnail.jpg

[Source: The Wall Street Journal]Report: Nissan Leaf priced at U.S. $38,500+ in Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



ReadÂ*|Â*PermalinkÂ*|Â*Email thisÂ*|Â*Comments

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/webl...eA:wF9xT3WuBAs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/webl...eA:V_sGLiPBpWU
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblo...~4/NEZ6Zrzo7cY

More...

I have faith that Nissan is going to do this right, but if this thing is more then $30k here they are going to have a hard time maintaining sales IMO.

damn thats kinda high.

i was looking at the nissan altra 62kw motor gets 120miles 117/130mpg on a r'nessa platform. pretty awsome stuff back then.

well you have to figure Nissan also plans to sell 500,000 of these cars ea year.
even 30k is really pushing it (they will be lucky if they sell 100k).

but if the price between this & the Volt were similar?
That's a no-brainer.
GM intends to sell around 70,000 units of the Volt per year
(which I already thought was ambitious.)

Yea, they def won't be selling too many at that price. The volt is supposedly gonna be around $30k, so that's quite a difference for a regular middle class family (the largest car-buying demographic).

WOW, what happened to the estimated $25k price??

Especially when the Volt is closer in size to a midsize car.

Especially when the Volt doesn't look like an econobox Versa.
Now wouldn't be such a bad time to sell your Nissan stock.

I dunno. I still wanna wait until they announce the official US price.

Hybrids/Electric cars are lame as hell. Sometimes when I drive by one I glance over at the gaylord driving it and laugh quietly to myself. Regardless, I agree that Nizzle-san won't sell many of these at that price. They ought to focus on bringing that much-rumored new Silvia incarnation S16 to life.

This is possibly the most pointless post I've read on zilvia in years.

Okay, thanks?

you give him too much credit, lol.

you're right, I was hasty.
They might be able to come up with a great price,
and/or the gov't might offer some killer incentive.

I think the max credit the gov. is offering is like $7,500k. But if it's $38 grand then $ it's still going to be way too much. This thing really needed to come in at $30 maxed out. $25 should really be the high side IMO. But we'll have to see.

because you could afford it...ohh wait...no, wait...you most likely have to wait say...20 yrs for it to be around price range...

Guys you fail to realize something Japanese car companies always sell their cars for cheaper here than they do in their own Domestic Market. They have been doing it for years.

Its technically called product dumping and the Japanese are notorious for it when it comes to cars.

You want to know who is starting to take the same cue? China.

Which is why I said I'll wait until US pricing is announced to say if this thing will be a success or not. Other then price, I see no reason for it not to be.

lolol whatever makes you feel better about yourself there, buddy...
:fawk:

Damn am I good.

Nissan Leaf EV priced from $32,780, $2,200 charger not included — Autoblog

$25 is the sweet spot for this car IMO. The price is right bitches.

Lol, you were pretty spot on!

It's amazing the gov't is fronting $7,500 for the car & $2,000 for the charging device.

Yeah the Gov incentives are huge on these cars. Some states are offering their own incentives as well. Colorado was offering a retarded $42,083 rebate on the Tesla Roadster until Dec 31st.

World's Largest Rebate? Save $42,000 on Tesla Roadster in Colorado — Autoblog

Imagine how much a Volt or Leaf is going to cost in Colorado. You should be able to pick one of these up for like $1,250. lol.

The 25k after Gov credit was just reported on CNBC so its pretty much official.

Nissan will sell electric car for just over $25K - Yahoo! Finance

For the U.S. price:
"The Leaf, a four-door hatchback due in showrooms late this year, will have a base price of $32,780, but buyers can get a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, Nissan said."

Edit: Got sidetracked, saw someone already posted this info -_-

QFT.