Nissan Leaf Availability To Be Limited, Too [Like The EV1 & Volt, Leaf Will First Only Arrive In Select Markets In The United States]

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The Leaf is Nissan’s all-electric car. Nissan is doing some pretty interesting things with marketing the car (more on this later), but at first, like it’s competitor the Volt, it’ll only be sold in select markets at first. These markets are Oregon, California, Arizona and Tennessee.

Like we saw with General Motors’ EV1 experiment and their limited release of the Volt, only select West Coast states are getting the car, in addition to Tennessee, where Nissan’s headquarters is. However, there is another reason that these select states are getting the car early. Gizmodo reports that they’re members of the “EV project” which have existing infrastructure and data-gathering facilities for electric vehicles.

In addition to those states, Texas and Hawaii will get the Leaf in January 2011. Most of the east coast will get the Leaf in April 2011 – and the rest of the country will get the Nissan Leaf by the end of 2011. It seems like a slow roll-out, but compare it to the launch cycle of the Chevrolet Volt. General Motors said that the first Volts are coming in December (although word on the street is that you can get some early) with the rest coming 18 months later. That would have most of America getting the Chevy Volt around June 2012. Yikes!

Nissan is marketing the car heavily at the tech crowd. They took out web ads on some big tech sites (Gizmodo, Engadget) and they allowed you to place a pre-order for the car via the web, without going into a dealership. Could just be a marketing gimmick.

Do electric cars interest you?