Why so Few deliverys in January and February

[stanley]

It appears that there will be only a trickle of deliverys in Jan and Feb. Production either slowed down in January to make needed modifications or the cars that are currently being produced are for the Japanese or European markets. It looks like production will start to ramp up to about 500 Leafs in February for late February or March delivery.

 

[arwang]

http://www.just-auto.com/news/production-process-slows-early-nissan-leaf-deliveries_id108526.aspx

"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.''"


Nissan has a lot of catch-up to do. Hopefully, when they speed up production, quality is not compromised.

 

[Gonewild]

It appears that there will be only a trickle of deliverys in Jan and Feb. Production either slowed down in January to make needed modifications or the cars that are currently being produced are for the Japanese or European markets. It looks like production will start to ramp up to about 500 Leafs in February for late February or March delivery.

Nissan was close over the holidays for 2 weeks.

 

[SteveInSeattle]

We all knew this--whether Nissan admitted it or not, the rate of deliveries IS very slow and clearly slower than they lead us to expect in their early public statements. I can live with that, I owned one of the first Prius cars and it was flawless, and it would be great if my Leaf delivered in April is also flawless-- better a perfected product late than a early, flawed, rushed product. In the old days GM and Ford always delivered defective cars early in their runs and things got worked out in later model years. Hence the folk advice I grew up with, "never buy a car in the first year". Those days seem to be over for the Japanese cars, but I remember the first year of the US produced Mercedes SUV's were full of defects.

 

[GeorgeParrott]

Nissan had a big media event in Japan back in October when they started production of what were to be "customer cars" of the LEAF model. Check the internet around 11 October for that "event."

Now IF Nissan started production around 11 October, they have had over 60 WORKING DAYS of production on the LEAF assembly line, and we now read directly from NISSAN JAPAN that they have only delivered 60 cars worldwide! That means they have gotten less than ONE CAR PER DAY off that production line.

Anybody really want to think about that for at least 60 seconds of reflection? There is no production line in the world, and certainly none in Japan that produces only 1 product/day. Typical ramp up production schedules might be 10-20 cars a DAY, but certainly not 1 car/day.

In a month less production time (around 14 November), GM has produced over 1000 of the Volt models, and it can be easily argued that the Volt is a MUCH MORE COMPLEX vehicle with dual drive systems, than the LEAF.

Nissan, IMHO, did not fully test actual "production version" LEAF models prior to attempting to start real production, and I believe they found a serious design issue which they have had to correct, by retrofitting early produced cars on the docks here before final delivery and by perhaps even STOPPING the production line there in Japan until new parts arrive. GM did MUCH, MUCH more actual field testing of the Volt with up to 300+ near final production cars rolling around in test fleets for cumulatively millions of actual miles of pre-testing. I have been VERY closely following both car rollouts, since I am getting both cars (LEAF ordered on 31 Aug and now scheduled for February delivery and Volt ordered on 5 Aug. and now sitting in my garage on the free Coulomb chargepoint which I plan to use on both cars WHEN my LEAF finally does arrive). It was patently clear that GM had maybe 5X the number of test cars in extensive driving over the last year compared to Nissan with the LEAF. The Volt rollout has been super smooth and the only early delay was the tardiness of the DOE in getting the window sticker finalized (as GM had maybe 500 cars sitting on the factory holding lot waiting for that sticker which is required before any car can ship).

 

[mwalsh]

I will go to my grave believing that it was a mistake by Nissan not to have a LAB (LEAF Advisory Board). I only hope it doesn't come back to haunt them. So far, so good with my car as of right now - I'm massively pleased. But I am looking for flaws and bugs, and will naturally report any serious ones I find to both Nissan and on here.

 

[DeaneG]

.. Hence the folk advice I grew up with, "never buy a car in the first year". Those days seem to be over for the Japanese cars, but I remember the first year of the US produced Mercedes SUV's were full of defects.

Ha ha, I had an ML430 (second year) - the worst car I've ever owned. Also a 1990 (first year) LS400, one of the best cars I've ever owned. To brush broadly I'd say that Japanese car manufacturers have a wholly different interpretation of reliability than their German equivalents.

 

[stanley]

ditto, ditto

 

[johnr]

@mwalsh: New car, new avatar?

 

[Skywagon]

I will say that whatever they did to ensure the delivery of a great car worked for mine. The car does have some little software things here and there (like carwings uploading) but it is nothing major; nor anything that cannot be made better with a software update later on. Overall I am very happy with my car and also glad to be one of the very early cars in the US.

 

[mwalsh]

@mwalsh: New car, new avatar?

ZX3 went to it's new home yesterday, so it seemed appropriate.

 

[1051]

Where is your polar bear?

 

[mwalsh]

Where is your polar bear?

Next avatar I'll pose him on the hood!