What happens after 7,000 Leaf orders are filled next month?

According to Nissan, they had about 7,000 orders, last month.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4373

2,094 Leafs have been delivered (as of June 3).

There are 5,000 people waiting for delivery in America. These are the people who live in the launch areas and officially ordered their vehicles.

When Nissan recently said "everyone in their Leaf by the end of summer," it meant these 7,000 people.

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In June they delivered 1,700 cars. That means just 3,200 orders are left to be fulfilled - which should be done by August end i.e. end of next month.

After that what ?

Will Nissan allow other states to order (they have to do that now to deliver in 2 months) ? Or will they start delivering cars to dealers to sell from their lots ?

Once rest of the states get to order - assuming 7,000 - more orders, even those will be filled within 4 months (i.e. end of this year !).

Nissan needs to seriously start figuring out how to sell the cars to a perhaps skeptical public, once the enthusiasts are taken care of.

Well, we just have to take our roles as ambassadors a little more seriously, I guess.

evnow said:

After that what ?

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They are done selling MY 2011 LEAFs.

Seriously, I think Tier 2 ordering will start with orders for MY 2012, which is right around the corner. They could almost be taking them now...

I'm hoping that the Drive Electric tour stop here in Philadelphia next month means that I'll be part of "wave 3". Considering how fast things have been ramping up, maybe wave 3 orders will start by year's end.

I think Nissan made a serious error in not taking more reservations - and stopping them at 20K mark (many of those were from non-launch states)

tps said:

I'm hoping that the Drive Electric tour stop here in Philadelphia next month means that I'll be part of "wave 3". Considering how fast things have been ramping up, maybe wave 3 orders will start by year's end.

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Yes - they should let people who come to the drive tour order cars. It makes little sense to not let them order at the venue - all they have to do is call the local Nissan dealers and let them help the interested order / take reservations.

tps said:

I'm hoping that the Drive Electric tour stop here in Philadelphia next month means that I'll be part of "wave 3". Considering how fast things have been ramping up, maybe wave 3 orders will start by year's end.

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I sure hope the Drive Electric event is an indication of being able to order soon. Boston and Hartford are this month!

evnow said:

According to Nissan, they had about 7,000 orders, last month.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4373

2,094 Leafs have been delivered (as of June 3).

There are 5,000 people waiting for delivery in America. These are the people who live in the launch areas and officially ordered their vehicles.

When Nissan recently said "everyone in their Leaf by the end of summer," it meant these 7,000 people.

Click to expand...

In June they delivered 1,700 cars. That means just 3,200 orders are left to be fulfilled - which should be done by August end i.e. end of next month.

After that what ?

Will Nissan allow other states to order (they have to do that now to deliver in 2 months) ? Or will they start delivering cars to dealers to sell from their lots ?
Once rest of the states get to order - assuming 7,000 - more orders, even those will be filled within 4 months (i.e. end of this year !).

Nissan needs to seriously start figuring out how to sell the cars to a perhaps skeptical public, once the enthusiasts are taken care of.

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This enthusiast certainly hopes they respect and honor the folks that are holding reservations and allow them to order like you folks have before they start selling to dealers!

Can people in the roll-out areas/states Reserve, RAQ, and Order right now, or are Reservations closed again?

There is a blurb on the leaf facebook page where Nissan is asked about avail in other states
They answered " news about other states in the coming weeks"

It's in the comments of the new leaf drive electric II tour post

Maybe someone can find it and link it here

I think many here are on the mark when they say Nissan must begin accepting new orders soon, very soon. They can't have these things just hitting dealer lots blindly

Not outside of tier1 anyway

I am in Va and would think now I will get to order by aug 31st

kmp647 said:

There is a blurb on the leaf facebook page where Nissan is asked about avail in other states
They answered " news about other states in the coming weeks"

It's in the comments of the new leaf drive electric II tour post

Maybe someone can find it and link it here

I think many here are on the mark when they say Nissan must begin accepting new orders soon, very soon. They can't have these things just hitting dealer lots blindly

Not outside of tier1 anyway

I am in Va and would think now I will get to order by aug 31st

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This is the Link to the Nissan LEAF Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/nissanleaf

I couldn't find the reference to the roll out schedule but I do remember reading it.

Go to the wall
Got to drive electric tourII

Go to comments

Scroll down to someone asking about cars in ny

And then you will see the comment from nissan

any way of determining how many orphans are available?
how long they are available?

i personally think there is a whole lot more interested buyers out there that simply do not have a clue as to how to order. i already know a few personally i have talked to that did not know that the Leaf was available, would rather wait until there were cars on the lot to test drive, etc. most i talk to think its crazy to buy a car sight unseen and telling them i did a 5 min test drive at 25 mph did not impress them one single iota

DaveinOlyWA said:

any way of determining how many orphans are available?
how long they are available?

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Someone publishes an avg # of days a car sits in the dealer lot. Last time they did so, obviously Leaf had the least # of days, and the news hit the media. It was something like 5 day (?) - so I think it was probably bloated a little. Volt was 18 days.

i personally think there is a whole lot more interested buyers out there that simply do not have a clue as to how to order. i already know a few personally i have talked to that did not know that the Leaf was available, would rather wait until there were cars on the lot to test drive, etc. most i talk to think its crazy to buy a car sight unseen and telling them i did a 5 min test drive at 25 mph did not impress them one single iota

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True - in the Greenwood car show a number of people were surprised that Leaf was actually out. A few who wanted to get one right away hadn't even registered at Nissan's site.

ya 5 days on the lot is the minimum time. even during the worst wait times for the Prius it was always 5 days. i think they start the clock as soon as the car leaves the port so "trucking time" is added to that which is 1-3 days then a few days of prep makes the 5 days.

i see that Brenden had 4 orphans with NO MARKUPS that were literally sold within hours after his announcement here. and Rairdons has 4. have they moved them? or are they simply charging too much?

DaveinOlyWA said:

i see that Brenden had 4 orphans with NO MARKUPS that were literally sold within hours after his announcement here. and Rairdons has 4. have they moved them? or are they simply charging too much?

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Yes - I think there is still quite a bit of pent up demand for MSRP Leafs that can be bought off the lot.

Someone I know paid $5K over MSRP to get one.

I have been getting a lot of "how do you get one of those" lately. One guy even thought the LEAF was a "limited production run" and all over with. It's a tricky Marketing/Image/Demand equation for Nissan to navigate. I mean, we know the LEAF is great but the random public is still woefully dis-informed about EV's. Keeping supply a little short and demand a little high is probably good for the first year. Think about it, the first LEAF that spends more than 5 days on a dealer lot will have Big Oil declaring "See, there is NO DEMAND for electric vehicles!". Heavy sigh.

I know a couple who want to buy but refuse to until they can drive one for an extended period and not have to pay over msrp...

TRONZ said:

I have been getting a lot of "how do you get one of those" lately. One guy even thought the LEAF was a "limited production run" and all over with. It's a tricky Marketing/Image/Demand equation for Nissan to navigate. I mean, we know the LEAF is great but the random public is still woefully dis-informed about EV's. Keeping supply a little short and demand a little high is probably good for the first year.

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mogur said:

I know a couple who want to buy but refuse to until they can drive one for an extended period and not have to pay over msrp...

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Maybe they should try renting a LEAF...

I've said for almost a year that I expect Nissan to ditch the "reservation system" as soon as they can produce enough Leafs to go nation wide, and go back to business as usual (shipping monthly allocations to dealers). Though I can't say this pleases me, I don't think my reservation from the forgotten 36 gets me much more than #1 on a local dealer's waiting list. Hope I'm wrong.
As far as the general public is concerned, I agree with those who posted above, that requires Leafs on the dealer lots that buyers can test drive. Buying sight unseen is a non-starter for all but the most enthusiastic.
So it all boils down to when Nissan can get the plant in Japan back to full production. would be interested to see if anyone has spotted a word from Nissan on that.

charlie1300 said:

Buying sight unseen is a non-starter for all but the most enthusiastic.

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The flip side of that is, as strange as it seems to most of us, many cars are "impulse buys", so getting cars on the lot is an absolute necessity for many buyers.

As I've said before, exactly what my $99 reservation means here in the forgotten 36 is not as important to me as getting a car. So even if ordering opens up to reservation holders and the public-at-large at the same time, it doesn't matter that much as long as I can get my car ordered and delivered. I don't know that they'll have enough production to put non-ordered cars on the lot here in the forgotten 36 before they let us reservation holders order...

tps said:

charlie1300 said:

Buying sight unseen is a non-starter for all but the most enthusiastic.

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The flip side of that is, as strange as it seems to most of us, many cars are "impulse buys", so getting cars on the lot is an absolute necessity for many buyers.

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You are so right. In fact, it is flat out amazing how many people simply drive to a car lot having no idea what kind of car they want to buy. I can't help but remember when I went to buy my 2008 Prius. I took a test-drive and they salesman was trying really hard to sell me the car. He kept pointing out how many cup-holders it had, how great it was that it had mirrors on the back of the sun-visor, etc. I eventually had to shut him up and say, "Look.. there is only one thing this car has that is going to sell me, and that is the fact that it is a Prius and it is a hybrid that gets nearly 50 mpg. anything else is immaterial." I don't even think the sales guy even realized it was a hybrid or why that made the car special.

But the point is, only a small portion of the American buying public actually researches and decides on a car before going to the car lot to buy one. Far fewer are willing to buy a car without sitting in it and driving it. So the day that Leafs start showing up on lots just for sale to the general public is the day we'll know the general public will consider buying one.