Nissan Celebrates A Decade Of Its Leaf Electric Vehicle

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the very first Nissan Leaf electric vehicle. Nissan has sold 500,000 Leaf vehicles globally. While it's certainly not the best selling electric vehicle globally, it was the first mass-market electric vehicle when it hit the market in 2010.

Since then, many other automakers have produced their own electric vehicles, with Tesla being the most notable. Nissan also mentioned an owner of a Leaf named Shannon Monroe, one of the first people in the United States to buy a Leaf. Monroe still owns his Leaf and has driven more than 125,000 miles in the last decade.

Nissan currently sells the Leaf in 59 markets worldwide and builds the electric vehicle in the US, Japan, and the UK. One of the significant changes, other than styling and features, that has come to the Leaf over the decade is improved driving range. Some plug-in hybrids today can drive as far on electricity alone as the early Leaf cars.

While celebrating the 10th birthday of its first EV, Nissan is also talking about the future. The automaker has a new electric crossover called the Ariya on the way. Nissan promises that the vehicle will have a spacious interior, a flat floor, and will go up to 300 miles per charge.

Any official EPA-estimated driving ranges for the Ariya are ways away. The 300-mile driving range is Nissan's estimate, and as Porsche found out with the Taycan, manufacturer estimates aren't always accurate. Nissan intends to sell 1 million electrified vehicles annually by 2023, including fully electric vehicles and hybrids using its e-POWER electrified powertrain. Nissan brags that its Leaf EV helped set a "solid foundation" for its electric vehicles moving into the future.