Enterprise to Offer Nissan Leaf to Rental Drivers Nissan will sell 500 Leaf electric cars to Enterprise Rent-A-Car starting in January, as the Japanese automaker aims to put more drivers behind the wheel of its battery-powered vehicle, according to reports made by the Associated Press. Enterprise said July 27 it will make the Leaf available to customers in eight different cities starting next year. Charging stations will be installed at 100 different Enterprise rental locations beginning in November. The cost of renting the Leaf, which runs 100 miles on a full charge of its lithium-ion battery, hasn’t been determined yet, Enterprise spokeswoman Lisa Martini said. But, like the hybrid vehicles that Enterprise rents to customers, the rental price is likely to be higher than its gasolinepowered cars, she said. The Leaf will be Nissan’s first fully electric vehicle and is one of several battery-powered cars hitting the market over the next several years. Nissan is currently taking reservations from Leaf buyers and will start deliveries of the hatchback to customers in select markets in December. The vehicle will have a base price of $32,780 in the U.S., but that
Nissan Looks to Mexican Exports, U.S. Plants to Ease Impact of Strong Yen
will be brought down by a $7,500 tax credit— the same price Enterprise is paying for the vehicles. Nissan said 17,000 people have placed orders for the Leaf so far in the U.S. Buyers in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Tennessee will receive the first deliveries in December. The Leaf will go on sale in other markets over the course of the year, becoming available nationwide by the end of 2011. Leon Kamins, general manager of Mossy Nissan of Kearny Mesa and Poway, posted information about Leaf delivery on a discussion forum: By the end of March of 2011, there will have been roughly (only) 3,300 Leafs delivered nationwide. Nissan initially wanted a lot more (10,000), but decided to launch in Japan in January, which diverted two thirds of the cars. So, of the 3,300, Nissan is parsing them out at a few hundred a month over the 4 months (December through the end of March). They are launching the car first in San Diego, Portand, Nashville, Houston, Tuson-Phoenix corridor because this is where the infrastructure will be. But 3,300 LEAFs for the whole U.S. until the end of March 2011 isn’t much.
Nissan will boost output capacity in Mexico to about 700,000 vehicles a year and may consider increasing exports from the U.S. as the strong yen makes North American production competitive, according to reports made by Bloomberg. Nissan is spending $600 million to upgrade two Mexican auto plants and is increasing U.S. production as a stronger yen make exports from Japan less profitable. The yen has risen against all the world’s major currencies in 2010 and is up about 5 percent against the U.S. dollar and 14 percent against the euro this year. The automaker has already moved some production overseas from Japan, citing the nation’s rising currency. The company has begun assembling its new March small car in Thailand and will start making it in Mexico in 2011. Nissan will cut output in Japan by about 20 percent from October compared with its September production plan. The company’s U.S. factories are in Tennessee and Mississippi. The company exports U.S.-built light trucks to the Middle East and has shipped Quest minivans to China.
Obama to Set $250 Million Loan Guarantee for Ford Exports
President Barack Obama announced a $250 million loan guarantee on August 5 to finance Ford Motor Co. exports, according to a statement from the White House. Obama toured an automobile factory in Chicago, where Dearbornbased Ford will begin assembling the new 2011 Explorer later this year. Ford is spending about $400 million to add 1,200 jobs to build the Explorer sport-utility vehicle. The factory is already hiring new workers at an entry-level wage of about $14 an hour, under a two-tier wage system that starts at about half the amount paid to hourly production workers hired previously. Obama will highlight potential foreign sales of the Explorer as helping the U.S. meet his goal of doubling exports over the next five years. The president will also announce the Export-Import Bank’s $250 million loan guarantee, which will finance $3.1 billion of exports to Canada and Mexico of more than 200,000 U.S.-made vehicles the statement said.
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