Nissan Leaf sales hit reverse four years in a row despite electric-car boom

Sales of the Nissan Leaf have hit reverse for the past four years in a row – despite record growth in demand for battery-powered cars in Australia.

Nissan has blamed the stall in sales on parts supply restrictions – however, other car-makers have also faced the same headwinds.

The decline in sales of the Nissan Leaf comes as the electric-car market in Australia has increased 13-fold over the past four years.

The Nissan Leaf was one of four electric cars – excluding cars which were not in stock for the full calendar-year 2022 – to record a decline in sales in 2022, with 331 examples reported as sold compared to 367 the year prior.

The Nissan Leaf's 2022 sales result was the lowest since the current-generation model arrived in Australia in 2019 – when a record 408 cars were sold.

However, the new generation model is more popular than the original Nissan Leaf, which achieved a peak of 188 sales in Australia in 2013.

Nissan Australia says demand remains strong for the Leaf – as it marks its sixth year on sale internationally – and it is facing stock shortages, with a wait list for some versions.

"I think we did [39] last month. We do have an order bank for those as well. So yes, there's demand for Leaf," Nissan Australia managing director Adam Paterson told Drive.

"We've had supply availability challenges. We've got an order bank, and if we could supply them tomorrow, that number would be higher than what was reported in VFACTS [the car industry's monthly vehicle sales reports]."

When asked for an indicative wait time for Leaf orders, Mr Paterson said: "It does depend on where you are, and the specific model that you're looking at it. It's difficult to quote that.

"Leaf for us is sourced from the UK, so the supply line – just like Qashqai and Juke [also built in the UK] – is longer than it is for Japan or Thailand, like some of our other products. So that's a challenge that extends that."

The executive said there is some stock of the Nissan Leaf electric car available in Australia – if buyers are not fussy about colour or battery size.

"There are some Leaf [vehicles] on dealer lots, or in dealer showrooms across the country, that are available today," Mr Paterson said.

"It's not plentiful supply. Not every dealer has five in every colour available, or anything like that, but there still are some available for purchase if the customer is flexible on which [model] they're looking for, or colour, and the rest of the options."

The future of the Nissan Leaf is unclear beyond the current generation, with reports pointing to its discontinuation in 2025, and replacement by a new small electric SUV built in a nearby factory in the UK.

As of the middle of 2022, more than 600,000 Nissan Leaf vehicles had been sold globally since the original model launched in late 2010.

It took three years to sell the first 100,000 vehicles (January 2014), nearly two more years to reach 200,000 sales (December 2015), and about two further years to reach 300,000 (in January 2018).

Sales accelerated with the launch of the current model in 2017 and 2018, reaching 400,000 sales in March 2019, only 14 months after the last milestone.

However, it took 18 months to pass 500,000 sales – in September 2020 – and what is estimated to be a similar timeframe to hit 600,000, amid production slowdowns due to global pandemic, and a wave of new, longer-range, and more modern competitors.

The Nissan Leaf was overtaken by the Tesla Model 3 in early 2020 to become the world's best-selling electric vehicle, when about 450,000 examples of each vehicle had been sold.

Since launch in Australia in 2012, Nissan has reported 2150 Leafs as sold – two-thirds of which are the second-generation model, launched in mid-2019.