"Nissan has only delivered around 60 Leaf electric cars even though it has already taken 6,000 orders due to be shipped by 31 March, the company said today.
The company told Kyodo News the speed of deliveries was slow because of new manufacturing processes but denied any delay in the delivery of the pre-ordered cars.
It told the news agency: ''As it is our first major project to mass produce EVs, we began building them with caution. Production lines are working fine so we expect to fill the orders as planned.''
But unnamed sources also told Kyodo the Leaf was not selling as fast as expected since it hit the domestic market on 20 December, partly because it takes time for consumers to complete the procedure for receiving a government subsidy for EVs.
Sales totalled 19 units in December and an estimated 40 between 1 and 14 January, Nissan said.
Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said in November that the company wanted to launch the Leaf “entirely free of troubles. We are making the cars a bit slowly while taking thorough care. We might make our customers wait."
Em: http://www.just-auto.com/news/productio ... 08526.aspx