Nissan Leaf Production To Kick Off At New Smyrna, TN Factory In Late 2012

The players in the pure EV world that normal folk can afford are very few. One of the pure EVs that has proven to be the most popular is the Nissan Leaf. The Leaf hasn't been without its issues for some owners, but it's an interesting car that Nissan plans to sell a bunch of in the coming years. Some drivers of the Leaf found that they were stranded and out of power when their gauge still showed driving distance. The other major issues was that sometimes the Leaf wasn't starting when the driver hit the go button.

Issues aside the Leaf is still an interesting car that runs solely off electricity. Nissan has plans to ramp production of the Leaf in the coming months and will start building the EV at a new plant under construction in Smyrna, Tennessee. The disaster in Japan put construction of the facility on hold for a while. The plant has always been planned for opening by late 2012, but the delays after the tsunami in Japan raised doubts about meeting the schedule.

Nissan's Bill Krueger has now stated that Nissan will start building the Leaf at the Smyrna plant by late 2012. The vehicles built on that assembly line will be the first constructed in the US. Nissan plans to build 150,000 Leafs at the new plant each year. I just wish they didn't make the leaf so ugly; it is not an attractive car.

[via AutoBlog Green]