Kudos to Nissan Leaf's Electric Vehicle Strategy, More Market Share Gains

The U.K.'s Auto Express revealed the Leaf's new 2017 model, to be released sometime in late 2016. Nissan Leaf's electric vehicle strategy is really being fully realized as more advertising appears on television and charging news keeps popping up in different cities across the country. The most recent sales for November show that Nissan Leaf is eating up more market share due to this solid strategy for the last year or so now. Kudos Nissan, love the action!

Over the last year and half, Nissan has been working with eVgo on charging infrastructure, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, and has been rolling out DC-fast charging across the nation. A lot of automakers originally said charging infrastructure was to blame for not marketing these vehicles.

Nissan met that head on with a charging demonstration project in Texas some two years ago and that program turned into its "No Charge to Charge" program this year, providing Leaf owners free charging for a two year period or so in participating cities.

One of the newer cities for this program is Chicago—where I live—and its recent announcement includes updating dormant charging stations left in the wake of the 350 Green debacle some three to four years ago. 350 Green installed DC fast chargers (and level 2 charging stations) via the Recovery Act and were shut off by contractors that weren't paid even though 350 Green "showed" they were paid. Chicago grift, you've heard it before.

That was quite disappointing for the nascent EV community here in Chicago as some of these charging stations are off major highways in the area, I believe mostly DC-fast charging stations. Turn the page to 2014, Nissan and eVgo saw these stranded assets and said this is a no brainer in terms of cost. The major cost of running electricity to the charging stations has been done, that's the big cost with charging stations. Level 2 stations are about $6,000-8,000 while level 3 are around $12-18,000 dollars.

Plus, Nissan's advertising has picked up quite a bit on television lately (love my NFL football) and it's effective. It's the "Kick Gas" campaign and it's solid brand awareness advertising. Please take note, Chevy. It's direct and lays the groundwork for the drivetrain. See the commercial below.

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