Nissan Leaf's November, December sales likely to climb back to 2011 levels

Nissan is apparently past the problems that plagued sales of its all-electric Leaf earlier past year and is likely to either surpass or be close to matching its 2011 sales numbers for November and December, according to a company executive at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Nissan ran into supply issues after it expanded distribution to all 50 states from seven earlier this year. That meant that California, which accounts for about 60 percent of US Leaf sales, was short on inventory, Nissan North America spokesman David Reuter told AutoblogGreen.

"We starved the California market a bit, and that impacted our sales," said Reuter, adding that many states scaled back on EV incentives for 2012. For November and December, "we'll be much closer to parity compared to calendar year 2011," Reuter said.

As for 2013 upgrades, Reuter didn't give details on performance improvements, but he did say that the Leaf would "continue to advance from a technological standpoint." Nissan also expects to start producing US Leafs at its Smyrna, TN, factory, within the next couple of months.

Through October, Nissan's 6,791 Leaf sales were 16 percent lower than the same time period in 2011, but October's monthly sales were up 86 percent from a year earlier. September sales were almost even.