The government support and charging infrastructure have helped the Nissan LEAF become the second best-selling Nissan in Norway and the ninth best-selling passenger car overall in February.

Norway has the highest level of support in Europe for electric vehicle purchases with zero VAT, no new car tax, free parking, exemption from some tolls and the use of bus lanes in Oslo. The existing on-street charging infrastructure in Oslo currently has approximately 3500 public charging points in Oslo, many of them free to use.

Olivier Paturet, General Manager of Zero Emission Strategy at Nissan Europe was delighted to attend the handover, commenting: “We are very happy to see that the ambition of the Norwegian government has matched our own with strong support for the widespread introduction of electric vehicles. The Norwegian package of incentives is unsurpassed and the recharging infrastructure is established and accessible. We can see that Norway is leading the way with its proactive approach to encouraging its citizens to drive electric vehicles. We hope it will continue with the further development and upgrading of the charging infrastructure.”

The 1000th car handover took place on 25 April at 12.30 in front of the Ministry of Environment where the Minister Bård Vegar Solhjell handed over the keys to Nils Haugerud. Also attending was Birger N. Haug the dealer responsible for selling this car and 550 of the 1000 sold so far, making him one of the largest volume LEAF dealers worldwide.

The plans focus on improving the environment for electric vehicles and, during fiscal year 2012, will see the Nissan LEAF sold in more markets, by more dealers, with a radically improved quick charging network.

Market and Dealer Expansion
In 2012, Nissan will radically increase the number of dealers selling the LEAF in Europe, making it accessible to many consumers for the first time. Today the Nissan LEAF is on sale in 14 markets across Europe, with a total of 110 dealers. By the end of March 2013, that will have dramatically increased by almost ten times, with over 1000 dealers actively marketing the Nissan LEAF – all Nissan dealers will be equipped with charging points thus expanding the charging infrastructure for LEAF drivers. By 2013, the Nissan LEAF will be available for sale in 24 European markets.

Customer evaluation vehicles
In advance of this there will be a significant increase in LEAF’s available at dealers with over 700 dealers in Europe offering customers a chance to experience LEAF by the end of April 2012. The scheme will continue to develop during the next 12 months, adding to the number of demonstration and courtesy vehicles available to customers within Europe.

30 Minute Quick Charger Cost Reduction and Deployment
In 2011, Nissan made a significant engineering breakthrough in launching its own quick charger into Europe, which is available at around 50% of the cost of conventional units (below 10,000 Euros). This Direct Current (DC) Quick charger charges the Nissan LEAF, or any other ChadeMo compliant vehicle, to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes.

It is also ‘AC ready’ to support the arrival of EVs from Alliance partner Renault designed to 43kW AC quick charge standards. The Renault-Nissan Alliance is promoting infrastructure deployment based on AC-DC Mix Quick Charger strategy.

The cost reduction radically changes the economics of installing DC Quick charging points at key locations across Europe, and opens up new possibilities for Nissan LEAF owners. To push this network expansion further and jump-start the full scale commercial deployment in 2012 Nissan is giving 400 DC Quick chargers for free to cities and regions in Europe.  These free units will give thousands of customers the opportunity to experience the convenience of charging quickly while significantly expanding the range of their vehicle.

This initiative follows an agreement between Nissan and five of Europe’s leading utility and EV infrastructure supply companies to speed up the provision of the latest quick chargers developed by Nissan. Nissan expects thousands of ChadeMo quick charging points to be installed across Europe by the end of 2012, and tens of thousands of by end of 2015.

Nissan LEAF Marketing Campaign
March 2012 will see an innovative online focussed campaign centred around the Nissan LEAF, 100 days to convert the maximum number of people to 100% electric driving taking the car to a whole new audience and introducing them to its unique benefits. Alongside this online campaign will be a new brand advertising campaign, which will have the Nissan LEAF as the ultimate demonstration of Nissan’s innovation, putting the car on television for the first time in many markets.

Battery Production in the UK
During the first half of 2012 battery production will start at Nissan’s record-breaking Sunderland plant. This important milestone will be the first step towards the European production of the Nissan LEAF. The production of batteries in the UK significantly increases the flexibility of the supply chain and protects it from shifts in exchange rates.

Vehicle Production
All of these actions will lay the foundations for the introduction of the European-built Nissan LEAF at the Sunderland plant in the UK. Building the car in the UK will reduce lead times, increase supply, mitigate currency fluctuations and reduce the carbon footprint of bringing the car to the customer.

“Second Life” for Electric Vehicle Batteries
As the electric vehicle market expands questions are often raised about what happens to batteries after they have been removed from vehicles. Nissan is working with its alliance partner Renault to identify suitable partners for trial of “Second Life” uses for battery packs. Electric vehicle battery packs are expected to be in strong demand for use in the storage of electricity from sustainable sources, where peak production and peak demand are sometimes not aligned. They can also be used for back-up electricity in areas of unreliable grid electricity or for grid load balancing. It is expected that after any second life usage, the batteries would still be recycled due to the intrinsic value and recyclability of the materials used inside. Further details on Nissan’s “Second Life” battery programme will be announced in the next 12 months.

This new launch phase means residents of 21 new states will be able to select and order a 2012 Nissan LEAF. The LEAF, the world’s first and only electric car, now also is the only electric car ever to be available nationwide.

“More than 22,000 LEAFs are on the roads globally, having driven more than 30 million miles,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales & Marketing, NNA. “There is no longer any doubt that a 100-percent electric, zero-emissions vehicle fulfills the needs and desires of drivers from around the globe. Nationwide availability of the Nissan LEAF means that now, anyone in the country can opt for a transportation solution that does not harm the environment, provides a pathway to energy independence, and doesn’t use a single drop of gas.”

On March 1, reservation holders in the remaining 21 states will receive emails from Nissan inviting them to engage in the Nissan LEAF ordering process. One week later, anyone living in these new markets will have the opportunity to place a reservation and order a Nissan LEAF.

The 2012 Nissan LEAF costs $2,420 more but will have more standard features then previous model. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the 2012 Nissan LEAF is $35,200 for the SV trim level, and $37,250 for the SL trim level.

Including the $7,500 federal tax credit for which the 2012 Nissan LEAF will be fully eligible, the consumer’s after-tax net value of the vehicle will be $27,700.

Lease payment for the 2012 Nissan LEAF SV goes up $20 to $369 per month for 36 months, while SL lease goes up $30 to $409. Lease down payments rise to $2,599 from $1,995.

Deliveries will start taking place in these new markets by summer.

From February, the 2011 World and European Car of The Year will be available for hire bringing the Nissan LEAF to a wider audience.

Although the Nissan LEAF is as easy to drive as a conventional car, every customer hiring a LEAF will be given a face-to-face handover by a Europcar representative who has been fully trained on the car and its workings.

For Londoners, this will be a particularly important development as Mayor, Boris Johnson, aims to make London the electric car capital of Europe.

In order to make hiring the LEAF even simpler for customers, Europcar will recharge it completely free of charge, even waiving the standard service fee usually made for vehicle refuelling.

Customers can call a Nissan Hotline with any queries they might have about the vehicle, plus, at the end of the hire every customer will be surveyed by Europcar with feedback used to help shape future generations of Nissan electric vehicles.

The pilot scheme, which will initially run for three months, forms a Definitive Agreement between the two companies, and follows a Memorandum of Understanding in which both organisations undertook to investigate ways of jointly promoting the concept of emission-free motoring.

Success of this scheme could potentially see it widened to other cities in France and Great Britain, as well as other countries in Europe.

The purpose is to evaluate and test the residential and commercial applications of energy storage systems or back-up power sources using lithium-ion battery packs reclaimed from electric vehicles after use.

Energy storage systems can store power from the grid during times of low usage and feed that electricity back into the grid during periods of peak demand, increasing grid performance and providing back-up power during outages.

The team plans to develop a LEAF battery storage prototype with a capacity of at least 50 kilowatt hours (kWh), enough to supply 30 average homes with electricity for one hour.

Electric vehicle batteries, such as those that power the Nissan LEAF, have longer lives than those of personal computers or cell phones, with up to 70 percent capacity remaining after 10 years of use in an automotive application. This longevity allows them to be used beyond the lifetime of the vehicle for applications such as a smart-grid community energy management system or battery energy storage.

Innovative energy storage solutions are expected to become a key component of the smart grid, contributing to greater efficiency, reliability and performance. They will facilitate further integration of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, into the grid. The evaluation of Nissan batteries, through the partnership, will help determine their suitability for the power industry as a cost-effective energy storage solution.

“This agreement will allow us to evaluate the commercial viability of a grid storage solution and develop a prototype to effectively reuse Nissan LEAF batteries,” said Bruno Melles, head of ABB’s Medium Voltage power products business, a part of the company’s Power Products division. “We look forward to working with our partners to take electric vehicle battery energy storage technology a step further.”

The EU institution that represents the interests of Europe’s regions in Brussels is making a conscious effort to reduce its carbon footprint and part of this strategy has been to add environmentally-friendly passenger cars to its fleet. The long-term two year lease of a Nissan LEAF is a sign that the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle is a leader among clean cars.

EU President of the Committee of the Regions, Mercedes Bresso, said: “The Committee of the Regions is committed to reducing emissions and improving air quality in our cities and regions around Europe. That process begins at home with the reduction of emissions from the fleet of cars we use. The addition of this all-electric vehicle to our fleet has another advantage which is to inform citizens of the clean mobility solutions that exist today.”

This comes soon after the first orders for the Nissan LEAF were taken in Belgium and is a further boost to the 2011 European Car of the Year and World Car of the Year’s environmental credentials.

Nissan Europe’s Head of the Zero Emission Business Unit, Pierre Loing, said: “This is further endorsement that the fully electric Nissan LEAF is a real solution to reducing emissions and we are happy to provide the Committee of the Regions with one of our zero emission cars.”

Previously only available to those registered on Nissan’s web site, reservations are now open to all Canadians who live within the vicinity (65 km) of the 27 Nissan LEAF certified dealers across Canada.

The first allocation of 40 MY11 Nissan LEAFs were snapped up within minutes this summer and the momentum continued with the first 350 MY12 reservations made available earlier this fall.

With the opening to the general public, even more Canadians will have the opportunity to buy the first all-electric car built for the mass market.

As of the end of November over 110 Nissan LEAF have been delivered to customers in Canada and globally, over 20,000 Nissan LEAFs have been sold. At a starting price of $38,395, the Nissan LEAF is eligible for provincial rebates of $8,500 in Ontario, $8,000 in Quebec and $5,000 in British Columbia.

Online Reservation Process:

- On December 12th online reservations opened to those living within the vicinity of a Nissan LEAF certified dealer at leaf.nissan.ca.
- A $99 reservation fee (fully refundable) is required to secure a reservation.
- After booking a home-charging assessment, customers will receive an invitation to order a Nissan LEAF.
- Customers request a quote from a local Nissan LEAF-certified dealer and will continue through the sales process until they drive away in their own Nissan LEAF.

Nissan has re-opened reservations and has begun taking orders from the general public for the 2012 Nissan LEAF in Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Deliveries of the LEAF, enriched for the 2012 model year with additional standard equipment including quick charging and cold-weather features, will take place in these key markets beginning in spring 2012.

With this new wave of availability, Nissan LEAF is now available for order in 30 states, including Washington, D.C. Nationwide, 50-state ordering will be available by March 2012.

The move comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the world’s first Nissan LEAF delivery on Dec. 11.

After one year and 20,000 global deliveries, the Nissan LEAF remains the world’s first and only all-electric car for the mass market.

“Nissan LEAFs have been on the U.S. roads for one year now, and thousands of drivers have become living proof that a 100-percent electric, zero-emissions vehicle fulfills the daily needs of drivers from all walks of life,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing. “We are seeing already-strong interest in the LEAF continue to grow across the country. This market expansion brings us one step closer to true, nationwide availability.”

The Concept is not the first LEAF produced by Nismo. In April 2010, Nissan revealed the LEAF Nismo RC, an out and-out electric racing car, at the New York Motor Show.

Earlier at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show, Nissan also displayed a sporty Nismo edition of the Juke Crossover.

With 20,000 examples sold globally since the end of 2010 and with two international awards to its name, the Nissan LEAF has proved zero emission mobility is a practical reality.

Now comes the Nissan LEAF Nismo Concept to show that electric vehicles can appeal to the heart just as much as to the head.

Central to the Concept is the stylish body kit, which gives LEAF a purposeful new look. But the modifications have been made with more than just fashion in mind – they play a significant aerodynamic role, generating extra downforce at speed to enhance LEAF’s handling and grip.

The major elements of the kit are the front aero bumper, rear under protector, rear diffuser, extended side sills and 18-inch alloy wheels. The front bumper incorporates LED lighting which is arranged transversely to accentuate a sense of motion.

The body kit has been created as an extension of the `smart fluidity’ concept that shaped the standard LEAF. It harmonises with LEAF’s sophisticated design, which endows the car with advanced aerodynamic and acoustic properties, and takes advantage of the design freedoms of the EV layout: with no conventional engine to cover, the hood line is much lower and more streamlined.

Extended side sills and the deeper bumpers front and rear emphasise LEAF’s low centre of gravity – made possible by the siting of the car’s lithium-ion batteries beneath the passenger compartment – as well as managing air flow over the body for the extra downforce. Unlike the standard car, which runs on 16-inch wheels, The Nissan LEAF Nismo Concept has 18-inch rims with lower profile tyres for added grip.

Nismo has left LEAF’s electric drivetrain untouched. One of the features of the potent 80kW AC motor is the instant supply of full torque (280Nm)… and that provides acceleration that is genuinely electrifying. It reaches 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 7 seconds and can sprint on to a top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph).

LEAF’s lithium-ion battery, which comprises 48 modules, provides a potential range of 175km (109 miles) and can be recharged to full capacity overnight from a domestic electricity supply. It can also be charged to 80 percent capacity in just 30 minutes, using a Quick Charger.

This is the 32nd year that the Car of the Year Japan awards has been held, and it is the first time in its long history that an electric car has won this prestigious award.

The award committee, which is made up of about 60 motor experts from motor magazines and media organizations, said the Leaf was extremely practical and had helped popularize electric vehicles.

Nissan Leaf also won the 2011-2012 Japan Automotive Hall of Fame (JAHFA) Car of the Year and 2011-2012 JAHFA Car Design of the Year awards.

Since its launch on the market at the end of last year, some 20,000 units have been sold, notably in Japan and in the US.

The motor experts also selected Mercedes-Benz Japan Co.’s C-class sedan/station wagon as the Import Car of the Year.

Electric cars with cutting-edge green technology and vehicles remote-controlled by smartphones have been a star feature at this year’s show, which runs till December 11 and features 179 exhibitors from a dozen countries.