The Nissan Leaf has fallen.
Nissan Australia has confirmed the discontinuation of the small electric hatchback, of which production ended in the UK earlier this year.
“Although production of Leaf in Sunderland has ceased, Australian and New Zealand customers are still able to place their orders until vehicle stocks run out,” a Nissan Australia spokesperson told CarExpert.
“We have secured strong stock levels to ensure that as the world’s first mass-market manufacture of electric vehicles we have vehicles available for our customers.”
We’ll update this article with remaining stock levels once these figures become available.
It’s unclear whether Leaf stock will dry up before Nissan Australia finally introduces the electric Ariya SUV.
The company has confirmed the Ariya is still set for an Australian launch but hasn’t provided information on launch timing. It says it will announce this soon.
While the Leaf is also produced in Oppama in Japan and Smyrna in the US state of Tennessee, Nissan Australia hasn’t announced any plans to source vehicles from either location.
The hatchback is towards the end of its lifecycle, with the current, second-generation model having entered production late in 2017. It received a facelift in 2022.
Nissan is investing £3 billion ($5.8bn) in the Sunderland plant to build a replacement for the current Leaf, as well as electric Juke and Qashqai SUVs.
The Leaf replacement will morph into more of a crossover, with styling inspired by the 2021 Chill-Out concept, but it will retain the Leaf name.
Local launch timing for this vehicle, which has yet to be revealed in production guise, hasn’t been confirmed.
Nissan Australia is currently offering the Leaf for $39,990 drive-away, with the longer-range Leaf E+ listed at $49,990 drive-away, provided you purchase one by September 30, 2024.
The Leaf’s recommended retail price is $50,990 before on-road costs, while the e+ is listed at $61,490 before on-roads.
Drive-away pricing for the Nissan Leaf normally ranges from $53,025 (ACT) to $56,854 (WA), while the Leaf e+ normally ranges from $63,525 (ACT) to $68,063 (WA) drive-away.
The standard Nissan Leaf features a front-mounted electric motor which produces 110kW of power and 320Nm of torque, fed by a 39kWh battery delivering a WLTP range of 270km.
Leaf e+ variants upgrade to a 160kW/340Nm electric motor and a 62kWh battery, resulting in its WLTP range increasing to 385km.
The special pricing brings the Leaf much closer to the cut-price Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) that have leapfrogged it in the sales race.
In the first half of this year, Nissan sold 190 Leafs, making it the 30th best-selling EV in Australia. Its sales were down 26.1 per cent on the same period last year.
In contrast, GWM sold 592 Oras in the same period, BYD sold 1248 Dolphins, and MG sold 2771 examples of its MG 4.
While Nissan was a pioneer in the EV market, it took until 2022 to introduce another EV with the Ariya, which still has yet to come to Australia.
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