Nissan began the online-only reservation process on April 20, 2010, charging a fully refundable US$99 reservation fee that allowed customers to secure a place on the list to purchase or lease a Leaf. It limited reservations to one per household[298][299][300] and by July 2010 it had received approximately 17,000 reservations.[301] The carmaker reported that more than 55% of the reservations were from what Nissan calls its primary launch markets in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Tennessee, where the carmaker has its US headquarters and an auto factory.[301][302] By September 2010 Nissan announced it had reached 20,000 reservations, and it did not accept any more reservations for the remainder of 2010.[303] In July 2011, Nissan stated that only 48% of Leaf reservations from the initial 2010 process materialized into firm orders.[282] TheUS$99 reservation fee was ended in mid April 2012, and customers are since allowed to buy the Leaf directly from dealers, keeping the online reservation as optional.[304]
Firm orders started in August, and deliveries began in select markets and limited quantities in December 2010.[298][299][301] Nissan initially limited Leaf sales among states that are home to the EV Project, which was awarded a grant from the United States Department of Energy and is the largest electric vehicle and infrastructure deployment in the US.[301][305] The first Leaf customer delivery took place in a Nissan dealership in Petaluma, California on December 11, 2010 to the first person to place an on-line order in the United States.[144][306] Nissan reopened online reservations for the 2011 model year Leaf on May 1, 2011 in the seven initial launch states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.[307][308] Starting on July 27, 2011, Nissan opened up the 2012 model year Leaf ordering process to consumers with existing reservations the second group of launch markets, which includeed Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Then, on August 4, Nissan reopened the reservation process to the general public in the first and second launch markets. By October 2011 Nissan had also opened orders for the 2012 Leaf to residents of Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York.[309] Deliveries of the first batch of 2012 model year Leafs began in November 2011.[214] On December 6, 2011, Nissan began taking order in Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.[310] Since March 2012 the Leaf is available nationwide.[311] Sales of the 2013 model year Leaf began in February 2013.[312]
A total of 19 units were delivered in December 2010.[313] On June 1, 2011, Nissan stated that it expected the total number of U.S. deliveries to be between 10,000 and 12,000 by the end of 2011,[314] a drop from its original forecast of 20,000 sales.[315] In 2011, a total of 9,674 Leafs were sold.[316] Over 60% of the Leafs sold in the U.S. were bought in California up to November 2011.[317] In May 2012, Nissan announced a sales goal of 20,000 Leafs for the year and the company expected to increase sales to meet such target once production starts in the U.S,[318] however, only 9,819 units were sold in 2012.[319] During 2013, sales increased to 22,610 units,[320] and the Leaf was the top selling Nissan model in Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco. Also, the Leaf ranked within the top-three Nissan models in Honolulu and Portland, Oregon.[321] As of August 2013, Nissan noted that the Leaf is among the ten top selling vehicles in San Francisco regardless of powertrain.[322] Cumulative sales through July 2014 totaled 57,877 units since its market launch.[166][167]
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