Nissan is so upset at the poor sales numbers for their plug-in electric Leaf vehicles the last two years that they'll be making some changes within the company to see those numbers improve.
Nissan announced that as of April 1, COO Toshiyuki Shiga will replace former electric-car head Hideaki Wantanabe and will directly oversee all electric-car plans in an attempt to improve sales numbers according to a report by Bloomberg.
"Chief Operating Officer Shiga is taking direct responsibility of zero emission efforts because the business is Nissan's top priority which requires global and cross-functional efforts," Chris Keeffe, a spokesman for the company said by phone to Bloomberg.
Nissan has been struggling to sell their highly-anticipated line of Nissan Leaf models, as they just sold their 50,000th model, despite expecting that number to be "double" between the start of production in 2010 and the end of 2012.
In the U.S. the company sold just 9,674 Lead vehicles in 2011, the car's first year in the country. This, needless to say, was pretty disappointing considering the U.S. is expected to be the "largest long-term market" for electric cars according to Bloomberg.
In 2012, Nissan sold 9,819 vehicles in the U.S. Nissan had predicted that by March 2013 the company would sell 20,000 Leaf vehicles in one year alone. In October, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn stated that the company wouldn't reach its goal again.
Nissan's U.S. sales chief Al Castignetti stated last summer that the low sales are due to three key factors: a "core misunderstanding" of electric-car buyers and what customers may want, greater competition in key the Californian market from other vehicles, and transition problems from online reservations to the standard dealership option according to Castignetti.
The company started production of the 2013 Nissan Leaf this January at their Smyrna, T.N. assembly plant. Nissan has advertised the vehicle with a number of improvements like equipment upgrades, lower base model price, and new trim levels according to a company press release.
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