Report: Nissan to allocate 2,000 Leafs to UK in 2011, half headed to fleets

Last weekend, Nissan revealed some info regarding the Leaf's availability and its allocation in the UK and managed to do so with little fanfare and virtually no media coverage. It's almost as if Nissan intended to slip this announcement by without us getting wind of some pertinent info that could make electric vehicle-loving residents of the UK a bit angered. What's the news? Half of the Leafs headed to the UK in 2011 will be reserved for fleet use. The company also suggested that its allocation of 1,000 Leafs have already been claimed by fleet customers. A Nissan spokesperson said:

We probably could have sold all of next year's allocation to fleet customers, but we wanted to make sure retail customers who wanted to buy the Leaf were able to, so we decided to split equally between fleet and retail.

Combining the statements above gives us the impression that Nissan intends to ship just 2,000 Leafs to the UK in 2011, with half headed to the retail market. Now, that will likely upset those early adopters who may find it hard to get their hands on a Leaf for a long while, but Nissan could have allocated all of the 2011 model run to fleets, thus making it impossible to get one in the UK until 2012. Thankfully, Nissan did not choose to follow that route.

[Source: Nissan-Leaf]