http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131219/BUSINESS03/312190038/Smyrna-made-Nissan-Leaf-sales-soar?nclick_check=1 Smyrna-made Nissan Leaf sales soar by G. Chambers Williams III Dec. 19, 2013
[image http://cmsimg.tennessean.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DN&Date=20131219&Category=BUSINESS03&ArtNo=312190038&Ref=AR Nissan Leaf - A worker installs a battery pack in a Nissan Leaf electric car at the Nissan plant in Smyrna. / Shelley Mays / File / The Tennessean ] Nissan exploring options for increasing production Perhaps all it took was a change of scenery for the Nissan Leaf to get its sales going. Since production of Nissan’s battery-powered car was transferred to Smyrna from Japan in January, sales have climbed month by month, ending November with a record 2,003 deliveries for the month, up 30.1 percent from the same month a year ago. Overall, Leaf sales are up 141 percent so far this year, enough that Nissan already is exploring options for increasing production of the car at the Smyrna plant. With sales rising, the Franklin-based Nissan North America already ordered a Leaf production increase in the summer, and it’s just now showing up in the plant with more finished Leaf models rolling out the door. “In response to strong demand from the market, we announced plans to increase Leaf production (about) six months ago,” said Nissan manufacturing spokesman Justin Saia. If the sales increases keep going, “We will continue to evaluate opportunities to scale production to meet market demand.” That’s because boosting production of the Leaf can take months to accomplish. After the increase was ordered in the summer, the company first had to ramp up production of the electric motors for the Leaf at the powertrain facility in Decherd, Tenn. Making enough batteries to boost Leaf production isn’t an overnight process, either. The main components of the lithium-ion battery packs have to go through a curing process of several weeks before the battery can be charged and made ready for installation in a car. Nissan builds the battery components at the new $1 billion battery plant adjacent to the Smyrna assembly facility, then completes the assembly of the battery packs on the Leaf production line. The battery plant opened in September 2012, but the first battery packs weren’t ready until mid-November. It took a while longer to get the production volume cranked up. Although Nissan has said it will eventually be able to make up to 200,000 battery packs and 150,000 Leafs a year, sales are still far below that mark. Through November, Nissan had delivered 20,081 of the Leaf to U.S. customers from the Smyrna plant. By that time last year, only 8,330 had been sold — all of them made in Japan. A Leaf comes off the assembly line about once every 15 minutes, mixed in with the steady stream of Altima sedans and some of Nissan’s upscale Maxima sedans. Integrating the electric car into the mix at Smyrna was a challenge for Nissan’s engineers and production specialists. There had to be some changes to the assembly line because of its smaller size — the Leaf is a subcompact, whereas the other cars are midsize — as well to accommodate its unique components, including the lithium-ion battery pack and electric motor. It’s all working smoothly, though, and the plant now runs on three shifts — 24 hours a day — from Sunday evenings through Saturday mornings — to keep up with the growing market demand for the Altima, Maxima and Leaf, as well as the truck products that come off a second assembly line: the Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti QX60 (formerly JX) sport utility vehicles. Next door, the components for the lithium-ion batteries are made in a clean and sterile environment. Nissan also makes two gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles in Smyrna — versions of the Pathfinder and QX60 midsize crossovers. [© 2013 www.tennessean.com] For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: NRG eVgo Offers Free EVSE @Park ‘N Fly LAX This Holiday Season EVLN: Free Supercharger EVSE from San Diego, CA to Vancouver, BC EVLN: Boston-Celtics' DiCaprio-esk Formula-E investment EVLN: India Has Happy EV Owners, They Still Await Government Support EVLN: Tesla v5.8.4 update can auto reduce charging from 40A to 30A + EVLN: 2014 MINI E Coupe testing drivetrain components, Spy Shots {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-U-S-made-Leaf-EV-sales-soar-Nissan-increasing-production-tp4666885.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
