The car, which is a blue hatchback version is shown for the first time with a complete package and will be hitting the US market and then over to Europe starting next year. the company is pretty confident that this will be their take in the environmental friendly cars market segment. this is probably because the design of the car, unlike other hybrid cars out there is sporty and is charged through the front.
According to Shiro Nakamura, the designer at the company, they did not try to make the car ‘different’ which will cause a certain level of ‘stereotype’. He said "This is not a niche car. We didn't make it unusual looking. It had to be a real car."
According to the carmaker, they will not be pricing the car beyond rich and will try to position it among the conventional petrol cars like the Versa which is sold around USD10,000. According to Ghosn, who unveiled the car with other VIPs including Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister and the mayor and governor of Yokohama, “This car represents a real breakthrough. The new car and new office building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, marked two fresh starts for Nissan, which hopes to take the lead in zero-emission vehicles.” The Japanese Premier was quite happy with how the Leaf performed and gave his vote of confidence saying that "It was so unexpectedly smooth and quiet. I am sure this car is going to be popular."
The hybrid car market have since been pretty much dominated by Toyota and Honda with Nissan falling quite far behind and with the Leaf, they are set to continue with the competition and re-enter a new chapter altogether.
