Nissan Motor Company is reportedly experiencing delays in supplying its heavily anticipated electric car to US customers.
The popular Nissan LEAF, which was introduced in December 2010, has more than 20,000 people on its waiting list. The Japanese automaker already delivered 19 to customers during its first production month, and followed it with 87 deliveries just last month.
Despite the delay, productions for the LEAF EV is still on schedule with about 4,000 cars built in Nissan’s Oppama plant in Japan. The LEAF is scheduled to be produced in other Nissan factories as well. The cars will be built in Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee factory from 2012 and in Sunderland, UK from 2013.
Although the scheduled production seems organized, Nissan admitted bottlenecks in its quality assurance process. The delays also stem from the EV’s unconventional ordering system, which is done through the Internet. The system bypasses US dealers and is responsible for distribution delays.
According to David Reuter, Nissan US spokesman: “We knew that the production rollout would be slow at first and then would ramp up [but] it’s where we expected it to be. Where we disconnected was in communicating this to the customer.”
Nissan has high hopes that distribution would improve by April.
The Nissan LEAF’s delay is just one of the many challenges the Japanese automaker and its French partner Renault will face as they brace their companies for eight battery-powered models that will hit the market by 2014. It’s the biggest challenge on technological advancement made by any company in the automotive industry.
Around €4bn or $5.4bn is being invested by Nissan and Renault to meet the challenge in electric vehicles. Factories will be supplied with lithium-ion batteries and are being built in France, Portugal, UK, US and Japan.
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