The 2011 Chevy Volt rocks the Nissan Leaf in February sales

In February 2011, Chevrolet delivered 281 2011 Volt sedans and while this was a drop compared to the 321 units sold in January but Nissan Leaf deliveries dropping from 87 in January to just 67 in February, the sales ratio in the battle between the two “green” vehicles grew in the second month of the year. Nissan insists that the extremely slow delivery process is intentional, as the company wants to make sure that Nissan dealerships have charging stations on site as well as checking with each individual customer to make sure that they are prepared to own the Leaf. This should help ensure positive ownership experiences for the first wave of electric Nissan’s reaching US consumers but this process could be hurting Nissan elsewhere.

The 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles being delivered were all a part of Nissan pre-order process which has been closed for months now. This means that no one who currently wants a Nissan Leaf can go to a dealership and even attempt to order one because the Japanese automaker has not been able to sell the units that have already been spoken for. The company still promises 20,000 Leafs by the end of 2011 but with each passing month plagued with the brutally slow delivery process, how many consumers are they turning away? Nissan originally planned to deliver around 100 units of the Leaf in February so with less than 70% of that number reached, how much longer can they drag their feet without handing over a huge share of the segment to the 2011 Chevy Volt?

While Nissan drags their feet on delivering the Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt has now reached dealerships throughout the initial target markets so consumers are able to visit their local dealerships in those areas and experience the Volt first hand. This is not true of the Nissan Leaf and with the company seemingly falling more and more behind schedule, the Volt is pulling away in the battle of the affordable electric-powered models in the US market.

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