Post date: Mar 21, 2011 9:20:19 PM
Nissan delivers its first mass produced, one hundred percent electric car to UK customers, as Japanese manufacturers re-start production after the country's earthquake and tsunami.
WALTHAM ABBEY, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND (MARCH 21, 2011) REUTERS - The first British customers for Nissan's new electric LEAF vehicle were able to pick up their cars from the showroom on Monday (March 21), despite Japanese car manufacturers struggling with production in the wake of the country's recent earthquake and tsunami.
Japan, reeling from a humanitarian and nuclear crisis after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, is a key supplier to the global auto industry.In the UK, Richard Todd was the first British customer to place an order for the zero emission LEAF when the books opened last September.
"I've always wanted an electric car. I love the technology. I think it's very important to encourage the manufacturers that if they produce these cars people will buy them but also there's a big environmental plus here. There's no local emissions and the power that's generated is much more efficient," he said.
Todd was attracted to the car's environmental credentials.
"You can plug it in at home and you charge it overnight, every night. Every morning you've got the full hundred miles, or 110 miles plus range, and most of the time there's absolutely no issue that you are going to get where you want to go," he said.
Nissan said the five-seater hatchback was rated with a range of 200 km (124 miles) on a full charge under Japanese test standards, although Californian authorities have rated it at 160 km (100 miles) and another U.S. agency at just 73 miles.
More than 300 of the pre-sold vehicles will be handed over to their British owners in the next two weeks. But with Japan's disrupted supply chain, it may be some time before any new customers can get hold of the vehicle.
The three mayor Japanese carmakers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan were forced to halt production temporarily, but Nissan restarted limited operations at five plants in Japan on Monday.
The company said it would resume production of repair parts and parts for overseas manufacturing at its Oppama, Tochigi, Yokohama, Kyushu and Nissan Shatai plants.
Vehicle production is planned to start on Thursday (March 24) and will continue while supplies last, it said.
"Well the issue for us in Japan at the moment is that our production facilities are pretty much OK," said Nissan's European boss Paul Willcocks in the UK on Monday.
"We have one engine plant that is not resuming production, so all the other factories are pretty much online. The issue though for us, we are very uncertain at the moment is over the supply chain. Not only tier one supplies, so the component supplies, but also the suppliers to those, the tier two suppliers, we're not completely certain. So in the short-term we don't believe there will be much disruption, mid term we're still assessing the position and obviously we may need to re-source," he said.
Nissan makes about 22 percent of its vehicles in Japan, including the LEAF.