Leaf falls in Japan

The Nissan Leaf had poor January sales in Japan.

Its sales were a low 753 units for the month – 73% less than a year ago (2833) and the lowest level for January ever, InsideEVs reports.

That may have an impact on used Nissan Leaf imports from Japan to New Zealand.

The cumulative Leaf sales in Japan amounted to 135,683, InsideEVs says, with nearly 20,000 sold in Japan in 2019.

Nissan has announced that on the US market it is moving from monthly to quarterly sales reporting, in line with many other auto manufacturers.

InsideEVs earlier reported Japan had a surprisingly low rate of plug-in electric car adoption and disappointing sales results.

After a 7% decrease in 2018, in 2019 sales decreased by another 17% year-over-year to 43,867.

The market share was just 0.8% (compared to 1.0% in 2018, and 1.1% in 2017) – low compared to many other countries.

Nissan has announced upgrades to its 2020 Leaf in Japan.

Meanwhile, InsideEVs

also reports the Leaf was third in battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in Norway during January 2020.

The Leaf’s 366 registrations were behind the Hyundai Kona Electric, Volkswagen e-Golf, Renault Zoe and the top-of-the-table Audi e-tron (902) for the month. The BMW i3 and Tesla Model 3 followed after the Leaf.