Nissan continues to lead the way in electric vehicle (EV) production, with their Leaf vehicle developing strong sales in the consumer and fleet markets. The Leaf has built on its previous success with an incredible 1,000 per cent rise in total sales in the month of January year-on-year. Already almost three-quarters of all pure electric vehicles sold this year were Nissan Leafs. Managing director at Nissan Motor GB, Jim Wright, said: 'Momentum around the Nissan Leaf is growing with each passing month and that trend only looks like continuing. 'When we launched theæLeaf we were the first manufacturer to bring an all-electric vehicle to market that was both practical and affordable and the success of the Leaf demonstrates we were right to do so.î In December, Hampshire dentist Brett Garner became the 100,000th worldwide owner of the Leaf. Only months later, the UK pay-as-you-go recharging network, Charge Your Car (CYC), reached the same number of EV charging sessions on its network. The total drawn from the network so far has nearly surpassed 550,000 kWh, including the electricity used in the journey by David Peilow and Robert Llewellyn; who drove a Nissan Leaf from London to Edinburgh, to prove the UK's network of public charging stations is sufficient for wider use. This marks a good month for Nissan all round, who reported strong fleet sales in 2013, with nine per cent and 39 per cent rises in car and light commercial vehicle sales respectively, helping them gain a five per cent share of the fleet market. Leaf registrations rose from 582 to 777 as more businesses moved towards electric vehicles, a 39 per cent rise on 2012. Barry Beeston, Nissan GB corporate sales director, said: "Last year saw a continuation of the strong platform we built in 2012 with a rise in Qashqai, Juke and LEAF sales and we expect that upward sales trajectory to continue with the new Qashqai now on sale. "We're also really pleased with the growth in our LCV proposition, helped by the investment we made in 2013 in expanding the number of business centres across our national dealer network." Fleets can expect incentives for electric vehicles to remain in place until 2020, with The Office for Low Emission Vehicles currently analysing how a further £500m of Government money could be used to support the industry. By 2050, the Government expects almost every car on our roads to be a low-emission vehicle, requiring a huge take-up from fleets and consumers.
