Let me start by saying that while I would really like to have this be a article about pre-production LEAFs,but Oppama Japan (where the LEAF is being built) is a really long way away to request a tour…and the media/public are apparently a lot less pushy over there (or Nissan is very tight lipped) so we hear precious little about Nissan’s work towards the start of commercial production which begins next month.
What we do have to fill the time, while we patiently waiting between the start of orders yesterday and deliveries in December for the LEAF, is pictures of Chevy Volts trundling down the pre-production line at General Motor’s Hamtramck assembly plant.
This last Wednesday saw pre-production Volt #100 come to life since GM pushed out car #001 out March 31st, 2010.
If you looking for context if that is high/low number or if it indicates GM is on schedule for their November 2010 deadline and volume, I really can’t say, as the Volt being a extended range electric car really has no other car in production today to compare it to. Reports indicate that the start of actual production begins November 11th (AoL), but again…without context, it is hard to judge the progress.
When the first pre-production car was build, it was reported that “several hundred” would be made, and a source inside the facility the week prior to Volt #100 being made said on production that, “Just a few here and there. We didn’t run any last week.” So its seems like either they are really confident everything is going great and are cutting back on pre-production estimates, or they are a little behind. /whatever.
Enjoy the pictures. Electric vehicles are indeed coming!
(Photos: Chris Paine/Revenge of the Electric Car)
![Will Ferrell Spotted Driving a Nissan LEAF [Video]](http://nissan-leaf.net/wp-content/themes/bigfoot/includes/timthumb.php?src=
http://nissan-leaf.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/wf.png
&h=48&w=48&zc=1)
When GM went to the new corvette body style many years ago they also raised the price. I predicted that would hurt sales.
Wrong.
Hopefully the fact that the Volt is just a tad more expensive than the Leaf (slight sarcasm intended) will not deter it’s sales!! Form all accounts it is a very luxurious car!!
GeorgeS(Quote)
Good stuff, here comes the EVs. But very slowly.
Mark(Quote)
It’s a dream come true to actually see an American-made electric car become real. GM’s high level of transparency with the Volt has been not only exciting to watch, but also comforting to see that promises made are actually coming true.
I wish Nissan would be as open with the LEAF. The LEAF dream has largely operated on faith and hope, with lots of promises and no guarantees. How many validation builds has Nissan done with the LEAF? Will LEAF production happen or will plans change – I guess we’ll all have to stay tuned.
stuart22(Quote)
Nissan is a bank vault compared to General Motors. Everything is a surprise with them.
Wish we had as much information as we did on the Volt. Yet Nissan is telling individual customers they will get their cars in dec. GM is not saying anything. Which customer would you rather be?
Mark(Quote)
Nissan has not hit all the dates they’ve promised with the LEAF up to now. Can you guarantee Nissan will follow through with their December customers?
stuart22(Quote)
Nissan has supported us from a customer loyalty standpoint by honoring the individuals that registered on the LEAF site. I registered on the Volt site long before the LEAF and have only received a couple emails here and there. Nissan has held to their two Biggest promises so far:
1. Holding my place in line.
2. Making an affordable EV.
With the LEAF rollout process I am fully confident that I will get a LEAF at or below MSRP.
James(Quote)
On another note I watched the Volt being assembled on the NG channel. The show is titled “Modern Factories” I recommend any EV supporter to watch it. I would love to see a similar show for the LEAF.
James(Quote)
WTF? Only dates Nissan has ever given out was orders would start in august and deliveries by the end of the year. It is september first and I have a order in & my dealer is saying december
Leafer(Quote)
Congrats on your car. I will say, however, that Nissan has made representations which it has not followed through on. For example, during the sample drive last September they swore up and down that the ability to place an order would be based on when someone originally signed up for the Leaf in April. AFAIK that hasn’t happened. They also made some representations about home charging that haven’t happened.
None of these things are big deals. IMO they just represent changes as the process has been refined. However, the Leaf seems less planned out than the Volt. Hopefully this isn’t the case with the car development itself but since we know so little comparatively speaking it’s hard to know. One reason why I’m leaning towards leasing.
DonC(Quote)
Personally, I am glad to see it happen on track…or mostly on track for both of them (as I plan on getting one of each at some point in the very near future, fingers crossed)
As Don said, and I agree, hopefully both cars roll out smoothly and without many hiccups. It doesn’t have to be a ‘either or’ at this point, not by a long shot. If either, or both have any major problems I think it will hurt us all in the end.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
“Photos: Chris Paine/Revenge of the Electric Car”
Anybody have any idea when this movie is going in the can?
Loboc(Quote)
It was supposed to be 2010, but I guess the movie has to finish up with Volts and LEAFs on the road, so IMDB is just saying ’2011′ now. I’d guess very early 2011, he has been working on it forever, it has to almost be a wrap.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413496/releaseinfo
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
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That is news to me and I’ve been following Leaf rather carefully for atleast a year now.
So, what exact date has Leaf not hit ?
I can quickly list some of the dates they did hit …
- Unvieling in Aug ’09
- Pricing announced in Apr ’10
- Reservations started on Apr-20
- Reservations started for everyone on May-15
- Ordering started in August
evnow(Quote)
Which can? Sequels don’t always turn out so well, regardless of the baying of the faithful. Time will tell.
jeffhre(Quote)
I predict it will be an instant cult classic. A perfect bookend for the original.
Loboc(Quote)
We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes more with Nissan than we do with GM concerning the Leaf and the Volt. But, one thing Nissan has done a great job on is opening up a wait list that will be used to give a signee a “foot up” when the Leaf is available in their area. Many of us have wished GM would have done the same thing two years ago.
N Riley(Quote)
I posted this the other day, but I’ve got no feedback (and nothing changed in the “Specs” page here). Anybody has info on the following?
Gwido(Quote)
Sorry Gwido, I’ve been a little all over the place the last few days, I must have missed it. I think you are referencing this spec document from Nissan:
http://www.nissanusa.com/ev/media/pdf/specs/FeaturesAndSpecs.pdf
Nissan has no added spec sheets/descriptions. I don’t think you will find it (pictures or description) until their website gets the full upgrade/makeover for the ’11s and the LEAF gets a regular slot
if you can wait about a month, we got a media drive lined up for ourselves and can get a first hand looksie/stress test for you. Make a list of questions, lol.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
In a related story, Lyle Dennis over at GM-Volt.com also has a further story/expounding on the Chevy’s start of production.
Check it out:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/09/01/report-chevrolet-volt-production-to-begin-on-november-11th/#comment-222944
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
I think it is probably worth mentioning that it is September the 1st, and that for ***cough*** some ***cough*** of us we can now order or LEAFs, you check your email and dashboards.
It is a staggered release over the month based on timing of your reservation, emails are ‘supposed’ to go out during business hours (for more than a couple reasons) during the day.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
Very exciting news for both the Leaf and the Volt…congrats to all those buying. I hope to be not too far behind.
Unlimited_MPG(Quote)
Yes – ordered mine around 12:30 PST. Apparently they released some at 12:00. May be everyday they will release some at 12:00 Pm PST.
BTW, from the time I sent the RAQ to confirmed order was less than 15 minutes. Rairdon quoted as promised 100 below invoice – including accessories. This is the only way to buy a car
evnow(Quote)
Congrats ev…I have been checking throughout the day. Nothing yet.
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James(Quote)
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Can’t gaurantee you that
So, now we wait for the test drives in October …
evnow(Quote)
Slight OT. GM is trying to trade mark “Range Anxiety”. Me thinks Volt having trouble competing with Leaf …
evnow(Quote)
I’m always up for a good threadjack!
While I believe Chevy has come up with (and produced) a very eloquent design/product with the Volt, which I can very much appreciate on a personal level, I think they have a real challenge getting the concept across clearly to the general consumer. Well, maybe not so much getting across to the consumer, but certainly getting it across to the ‘their’ consumer at that price point.
Selling cars is not GM’s forte, they have given that business away over the years, and they have really lost the know how on how to market them.
If you want a crossover, SUV, or truck, GM is all that and a bag of chips…but not cars. It is actually not a bad stretegy to follow-play to your strengths, but it was too little too late before bankruptcy, it should pay off with some profitable years now.
GM ‘trucks’ actually outsell cars 9 to 5 now. For instance a company like Nissan that has a market share at 7.7% only sold 20,000 less cars than GM at around 19%.
Quite simply GM has nothing in their stable even close to $41,000 and still nothing at $33,500 (post rebate) that doesn’t have a Cadillac badge on it. The closest thing is a Lucerne in the high 20s, and for the most part, only grandpa’s drive Buicks.
GM has no ‘trade-up’ story for the customer that comes into their show room to get them into Volts. With any new model, the bulk of that models sales still comes from your in-house customer, with a varying a degree of ‘new business’ added on top-depending on the merits of the product itself.
So, without a solid in-house base to work from they have to go take that business, and with a car whose concept could be confusing to customers, and a price point that is simply too high for a compact/marginal midsize Chevy, they have to play the hand they are dealt from past management. That being said, if they restrain capacity to make it look like a winner, the whole thing is m00t…but then they are really not trying to sell the car, they are selling a image. (Much like the Camaro, which they touted as being a ‘hot car,’ and a virtual sellout, but production capacity was pre-planned to be a third of what the previous gen was, and they have yet to sell as many new Camaros as the least successful, full years run of the last iteration)
Personally, I think the Volt should have been badged a Cadillac and still priced around $45,000, and sold (and styled) along side the new ATS, which is a upcoming, smaller, entry level rear wheel drive ‘BMW fighter.’ Right image, right market segment, right price for that type of vehicle…then there would have been no LEAF-Volt thing at all.
/imo
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
LEAF spotting – I was driving over to my father in laws house this evening and I saw Glacier Pearl LEAF. It is a damm good looking car and it really stands out. I recognized it immediately and crused by it so I could get a better look. It had the Zero emissions logo and Michigan plates. Go EV’s!!
James(Quote)
Now….if only you could order one. I could send you some screenshots of a confirmed order and then photoshop your name onto it if you like.
/you know I’m just teasing with you, it’ll come soon I’m sure James, (=
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
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I think the price is the biggest issue. Leaf has got something like 90% of reservations from people who have never owned a Nissan before. With the right pricing GM could have pulled the same.
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Or may be they should have started with a mini-van or a medium SUV for which people do pay more. Lutz was I guess partly to blame – he wanted a “sports” car.
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Here is another angle. Leaf has basically captured the “green” customers. Volt was hoping for the “national security” demo – what with their “independence” drive. But for partisan reasons Rush etc decided to be strongly anti-Volt. So in terms of demo – Volt has only some gm-volt faithfuls left.
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If I were a GM Volt marketer I’d keep hammering on “foreign oil” use and how that supports terrorists etc. Why go after EVs – afterall GM will come up with an EV one of these days …. very short sighted. I think this will backfire just like the 230mpg, “chevrolet instead of chevy” … afterall they could have just used “range anxiety” if they wanted instead of trying to trade mark it !
evnow(Quote)
Yes, but then what will have left to obsess over?
James(Quote)
I really thought they should have stuck with the EREV cute-ute, or Orlando I guess it is called in Chevy trim (although the production version doesn’t have the same flare as the concept of international version on the same platform).
Sure the CUV is a little heavier, not as good with the CdA, and the range probably goes down to 30 miles, but it gets them into what they know how to sell (trucks) and it gets them into the proper price point at Chevrolet-GM sells more $30,000+ trucks than anyone, almost as many trucks as Toyota, Honda and Nissan combined.
It (the CUV EREV) also ‘maths’ better, as people compare it to other utility vehicles getting low 20s in MPG, while also costing out in the high 20s/low 30s. The Volt as it stands now, finds itself up against things like the Prius with the MPGs and the LEAF being all electric…even getting competition being up against its donor car, the Cruze, and its 40MPG highway thing.. (All of those also featuring 5 seats)
I actually believe that utility-EREV project is still out there in the wings, but is waiting on the governments ATVML program to come through with that 8-10 billion odd in loans (which ‘should’ be very soon)…maybe even the Caddy (or at least a Buick) comes back in some form.
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
I think this is overly complicated. I think their cars have sucked. No amount of marketing can make up for bad product. IOW great products make marketing successful not the other way around. GM’s cars are improving — more so at Buick than Cadillac IMO — so I suspect their sales will as well.
At the other end of the spectrum, Toyota seems to have dedicated itself to making boring cars. We’ll see how that works out.
DonC(Quote)
Yes, I agree the flaw is with the actually design/making of the car more than the marketing. I was just rolling it all up into one big ball, (=
Jay (Statik) Cole(Quote)
Yes, that’s the document in question. I was wondering if you saw pricing information on that package along with the other options available when ordering. Anybody has seen this option package when placing your order?
Gwido(Quote)
And Jay, you don’t have to be sorry. You’re making an excellent job on this site!
Gwido(Quote)