Nissan LEAF

Nissan announced they had reached 12,000 reservation for the US late Tuesday night, saying “Thanks to all of you who have made a reservation for a Nissan Leaf, we surpassed 12k today!”

While the number had reached 9,500 as of the last update late last week, orders had slowed somewhat because the reservation system had only been open to those who had expressed an earlier interest in purchasing or learning about Nissan’s electric car.

That changed this past Saturday as anyone in the US now has the opportunity to put their refundable $99 deposit down; and it showed in the bookings with the number jumping by 2,500 units in the past 72 hours.

That brings worldwide reservations (and by worldwide I mean the US and Japan) to around 17,000 units. This number is significant because it also brings them within 3,000 of Nissan’s original goal, set last October, to have booked 20,000 hand-raisers by the end of 2010.

Then, less than three weeks ago on April 30th, Nissan’s Mark Perry (Nissan North America product planning chief) set a new goal of 25,000 orders in the US alone before deliveries start this December, while also saying they were on track with 8,000 reservations filled at the time.

I’m guessing with a 50% jump in 18 days, they are now well ahead of schedule.