Nissan Europe gets first director of electric vehicles

Nissan Europe would like to see sales of its Nissan Leaf go up – how unusual – and has brought in an experienced marketing executive to make it happen. Jean-Pierre Diernaz moved from Nissan's luxury brand Infiniti, where he served as director of marketing and communications, to become Nissan Europe's first director of electric vehicles for the region.

Diernaz started out in the car business in 1994 at Ford France and held a number of marketing executive positions with the company until moving over to Nissan Europe in June 2005. He became general manager of marketing communication in January 2007, and was credited with contributing to the successful ad campaign for the Qashqai crossover, Nissan's top-selling model in Europe. To increase EV sales, Nissan and Renault are open to trying out various niches like carsharing and fleets.

Nissan and Renault are playing a leading role in EV sales in Europe, but the numbers are still way below their expectations. Nissan increased the range and lowered the prices for the 2013 Leaf. Last year, it only sold 5,210 Leafs in Europe, which fell short of the 9,000 originally anticipated. Mr. Diernaz, meet your challenge.