Report: Nissan Leaf price to drop below £23,990 ($39,214 U.S.) in UK

Back on March 1st, the price of the Nissan Leaf in the UK shot up by 6.9 percent, a price hike of £2,000 ($3,269 U.S. at today's exchange rate). According to Nissan, the price increase was mainly due to soaring costs of raw materials, which somehow impacted the Leaf's bottom line more than other Nissan models.

The disclosure on Nissan's official UK Leaf Facebook read:

There are several key reasons why the cost of the Leaf has had to be increased. Firstly, an increase in the cost of Raw materials - there has been significant inflation in the cost of raw materials which has meant that most Nissan models will be included in this price increase (maximum of any other model is 1.8%). Also exchange rate fluctuations has played a part on the price increase.

Now comes word that pricing for the Nissan Leaf, which currently starts at £25,990 ($42,483 U.S.) after government subsidies are factored in, will tumble a bit, dipping below £24,000 ($39,230 U.S.) by 2013. Why the price drop? Well, as Nissan's chief vice president of global marketing communications, Simon Sproule, told What Car?:

Building the cars and batteries in Sunderland will bring prices down significantly because of the inherent savings – certainly below the original launch price.

So, how low will the Leaf's UK price go? Looks like we'll find out in 2013.

Photos copyright ©2010 Damon Lavrinc / AOL

[Source: What Car?]