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Nissan to introduce Leaf 2 – Electric Car in India this year

Japanese Auto Maker Nissan is intruding Nissan Leaf Electric Car in India in this year. The second generation Nissan Leaf, one of the top selling electric cars in the world, will make its India debut in this year, Nissan’s India president said. The Japanese automaker is keen on introducing its advanced global products into its India portfolio, starting with the Leaf 2.

“We’ll make it available for the public. We want to make sure that it is used by a lot of people.” Nissan plans to bring a fleet of the Leaf 2 for test drives in Chennai, where its 650-acre plant with Renault is located. “Then we’ll see how we can scale it up,” he added.

He did not comment on the car’s possible price range, however said that the focus would not be to make it cost competitive in the initial phase. The EV will also not see a big volume launch in India. “It will not be a big volume but we will homologate it. We have already started working on the homologation,” said Kuehl. Homologation is the process of approving a vehicle or auto part so that it meets the regulatory standards of a particular country. To begin with Leaf will be imported as a completely built up unit, pricing is going to be higher due to impact of steep taxes on imported vehicles. It is estimated to be in range of Rs 30-40 lakh ex-showroom in India.

The company, in an aggressive push to increase market share, will be launching new products every six months from the start of the festival season later this year. “We had a one- to two-year cycle for new products so far and now we are cutting it to six months,” said Kuehl. While the company plans to scale up its presence in the sports utility vehicle segment with the launch of a new vehicle, Kuehl also said he was confident about upcoming products from the Datsun brand providing competition to other automakers in the under Rs 10-lakh category of cars.

About Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is a compact five-door hatchback electric car manufactured by Nissan and introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, followed by various European countries and Canada in 2011. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) official range for the 2016 model year Leaf with the 30 kWh battery is 172 km (107 miles) on a full battery charge, while the range with the smaller 24 kWh battery is 135 km (84 miles), the same as the 2014/15 model year. Leaf battery packs can be charged from fully discharged to 80% capacity in about 30 minutes using DC fast charging.

More than 300,000 Leafs have been sold worldwide through January 2018, making the Leaf the world’s all-time best-selling highway-capable electric car in history. As of December 2017, the United States is the world’s largest Leaf market with almost 114,827 sold, followed by Japan with almost 72,500 units, and Europe with almost 68,000. As of December 2016, the European market is led by Norway with over 19,400 new units registered, and the UK with 15,000 units by mid-September 2016. The Leaf was the world’s best-selling plug-in electric car in 2013 and 2014.

Harpreet S

Harpreet is a senior Technocrat from Industry with penchant for blogging, product reviews. Apart from Technology, he covers sectors like Lifestyle, Luxury, Travel, Automobile, Fashion, Healthcare, Real Estate, Hospitality, Education and much more