Mark Perry, director of product and advanced planning for Nissan Americas, said the Japanese automaker is on track to double sales in 2012; it sold about 9,700 Nissan Leafs in the United States in 2011. Nissan only recently rolled out the Leaf to all 50 states a few weeks ago.
When Nissan was designing the Leaf five years ago, it thought about leather as an option. "We were like, 'Ah, let's do the clean, green recycled materials,'" Perry said in an interview.
But Nissan's customers told them otherwise, saying they want leather, Perry said. "People want a dark interior, so we're to give them a dark interior, too."
General Motors Co. offers its extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt in a leather trim option. GM spokesman Rob Peterson said about three-quarters of Volt models sold or leased have leather.
The Leaf — by far the best-selling electric vehicle in the United States — outsold the Chevrolet Volt in 2011. About 7,600 Volts were sold last year, below the forecast of 10,000.
But the Volt outsold the Leaf in February; sales of the Leaf fell to 478 that month. Perry said he expects that sometime this summer Nissan will be selling 2,000 or more Leafs a month in the United States.
Nissan will unveil the upgraded 2013 Leaf in December when it begins producing the car in Smyrna, Tenn. Nissan won $1.4 billion in Energy Department loans in January 2010 to build batteries and up to 150,000 electric vehicles annually in the United States.
Buyers in Minnesota had been waiting for 18 months until it went on sale recently. As a result, Minnesotans have had the highest daily volume buyers of the Leaf in recent days, Perry said.
Consumer Reports' senior director of its auto testing center David Champion has said the range of the Leaf dropped dramatically in cold weather when the heater was turned on. Perry says the 2013 Leaf will have a "much, much more efficient" heater that will dramatically extend the Leaf's range in cold weather.
The Environmental Protection Agency rates the Leaf's range at 73 miles, but Nissan has said it can go up to 100 miles on a single charge, depending on driving conditions and weather. "You may not see much change on the EPA rating, but in cold-weather conditions you may see 20 to 25 miles of improvements," Perry said.
Nissan will unveil a prototype of a concept Infiniti electric vehicle at the New York International Auto Show next month.
The company hasn't named the EV or said when it will be available.
Perry said that high gas prices are causing more people to consider buying EVs. "After you pay that $80 to fill up your tank, you get ticked off and you say, 'I want to look at an electric.''
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