Canadian group purchase of 2788 Nissan Leaf EVs

Eco-friendly activist Bruno Marcoux in Montreal has instigated a huge group-purchase of Nissan Leaf electric vehicles from Montreal’s Nissan Gabriel Jean-Talon dealership.

After his initiative was featured in La Presse, the biggest newspaper in Quebec, and Roulez Electrique, a blog covering electric vehicles in the nation, sign-ups for the group buy shattered expectations and reached over 2788 on Tuesday.

This is similar to what the NZ Government plans to do here, in negotiating bulk buys of electric cars from OEMs for fleets, local bodies and major businesses – but without the massive subsidies offered by many overseas governments.

The Canadian move bodes well for Nissan, whose Nissan Leaf sales in the US have been significantly down, year-over-year, but not declining in Canada, although this market is very small for the carmaker at just over 1000 Leaf sales per year on average

Marcoux got the idea from the successful group buy of 248 by the South West Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) earlier this year in Colorado.

The organisation managed to get a significant discount of  C$8349 (NZ$8787) on the Leaf. Both Nissan America and the local dealership contributed to the discount, and combined with both state and federal tax credits, the price came down to an amazing C$12,130 (NZ$12,956).

Marcoux aimed at securing enough interest to make it a bigger sale than the 42 Leafs the city of Montreal bought earlier in the year. In turn, he wasn’t sure if he could secure a discount equivalent to SWEEP, but he is in a better position than ever to do just that.

The Leafs, with a 24kWh battery pack, start at C$32,698 (NZ$34,414) and the SV, with a 30Wh battery pack, starts at C$37,398 (NZ$39,361). Considering Quebec offers a C$8,000 (NZ$8419) rebate, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the entry price fall below C$20,000 (NZ$21,049).

Marcoux is reportedly now in negotiations with Nissan Canada.

At this point, it would probably be a question of availability, since if even only half the people who signed up end up going through with the purchase, and people are still signing up, it would more than double Nissan’s entire annual Leaf sales in the country in just one group buy.

It would also represent more Leafs than Nissan delivered in the US last month.

Marcoux says that currently Nissan could likely only secure a price for about 1500 2016 LEAFs and the balance would need to be covered by the upcoming 2017 model – though with a smaller discount.

To put things into perspective, there are about 11,000 electric vehicles in Quebec right now. If the sale goes through, the number would increase significantly in the coming months.