All Kiwi Nissan dealers aboard Leaf programme

This story first appeared in the July issue of AutoTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Nissan New Zealand says all franchised dealers are part of the new Leaf’s retail and customer support network.

Speaking to EVTalk this week at the Australasian Leaf electric car launch in Melbourne, Nissan New Zealand managing director John Manley confirms all Kiwi dealers will join their Aussie counterparts in supporting the new Leaf and says stock will reach our shores after Australian deliveries.

Mirroring Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester, Manley says all 42 of New Zealand’s franchised Nissan dealers are expected to invest in service technician training, sales staff education and charging infrastructure installation.

“Nissan dealers must complete an accreditation programme prior to launch,” he says.

“This involves technical training for service personnel and sales training for all ‘customer facing staff’, this includes sales people and service reception and parts counter staff,” Manley explains.

The Leaf programme, Manley says, is ready to proceed and simply awaits arrival of stock into showrooms.

“At this point we have completed the technical training and will commence the full sales training regime on August 2,” he says.

“This will be completed prior to the first shipment of vehicles arriving in NZ for retail sale,” he says.

Nissan NZ says it can’t confirm exact numbers at this early stage, but the level of interest has been sizeable.

“We have a large bank of ‘hand-raisers’ and a number of signed orders,” Manley reveals.

“However, we cannot confirm until the first shipment arrives as we have dealer demonstrator orders to fulfil initially,” he explains.

The Leaf is expected to go on sale two weeks after the Australian contingent, Manley confirms, due to the logistics pipeline which determines Australia will receive Leaf product first.

“Nissan NZ will be on sale approximately two weeks after Australia as all Leafs are [built] ex-Sunderland [UK], with the NZ vehicles trans-shipped from Australia, thus creating a longer logistics pipeline,” he continues.

EVtalk has learned Nissan certified Leaf dealers must have at least one registered demonstrator unit on-hand, and initial available stock for retail sale will be managed by Nissan NZ to allocate to retail customers.

Pre-ordering has been available in NZ since June, and Nissan confirms the recommended retail price of the new Leaf will be $59,990.