Nissan 'almost' sold out of 2012 Leafs

Nissan has "almost" sold all of its model-year 2012 Leafs in the US on a jump in demand for the all-electric model during the latter part of the year, Nissan spokesman Travis Parman told AutoblogGreen.

The Japanese automaker had less than 900 Leafs on hand at the beginning of the year and will have sold most of those in January. Last month, Nissan started work on the 2013 model-year Leaf at its Tennessee plant.

While 2012's Leaf sales lagged those of 2011 for much of last year, demand picked up substantially towards the end of the year. Through the first nine months of the year, Leaf sales were down 28 percent from a year earlier, but Nissan finished 2012 with sales of 9,819 Leafs, up 1.5 percent from 2011. January 2013 sales figures should be released Friday.

Earlier this month, Nissan said it was dropping the price of its 2013 Leaf by $6,400 to a base of $28,800. Nissan's first US-produced Leafs will roll off the company's Tennessee assembly line next month.