Could Nissan consider halting LEAF reservations? While according to the CEO of the company, Carlos Ghosn they just might.
Mr. Ghosn was addressing the Detroit Economic Club Tuesday in Michigan, and spoke of the very favorable reception by the public to his 100 mile electric LEAF to be released this December.
“The preorders are such that we are very comfortable with what we have undertaken,” Mr. Ghosn said after the speech. “The more we advance into it, the more comfortable we are with it.” And he added that the company might stop taking reservations altogether, because of its seemingly assured success.
Nissan is now very close to achieving 20,000 pre-orders for the car, with over 13,000 booking in the US, and over 6,000 in Japan. This number is significant because it represents the original goal set by the company to have ‘in the bank’ by the end of 2010…not the number of reservations to have in hand before the end of the first month they are made available.
While I am sure Nissan is more than happy to have such a huge back order book already, the concern is that at some point if it continues to grow, the actual wait time for delivery by the consumer on the list may grow to be excessive, and may cause a PR backlash on themselves.
The goal of the pre-order system was to gauge and guarantee demand, to validate management’s decision to put the LEAF in production. With that now assured, thoughts have turned to the execution of delivering the product. Nissan’s capacity through March of 2011 is 12,000 units, and up to 50,000 for all of 2011. (with at least 20,000 of those headed to the US)
Nissan has to not only accommodate early demand for the LEAF from the savvy/early adopter crowd, but from its own dealer base, and the general population as well (as they will be the ones the ultimately prove the LEAF a success or failure).
Nissan has over 1,250 dealers in North America and 2,000+ in Japan…everyone of them probably would like more than a few in stock for themselves to sell.
/good problem to have
Source: NYT
