It might be hard to believe, but Nissan has been selling its all-electric 2011 Leaf for nearly eight months.  And a few days ago, the company sold its 5,000th Leaf to a U.S. customer. 

But while Nissan doesn’t officially break down sales on a state-by-state basis, most of those sales are in the state of California, according to Nissan spokesperson Katherine Zachary. 

Nissan states that around 85% of all Leafs sold were ordered with the 2011 model year option of a DC rapid-charging port, despite the general sparsity of publicly available DC rapid charging stations.

As the rapid charging port was only available during the 2011 model year as a $700 option on the $33,720 Nissan Leaf SL, we can conclude that most consumers made the gamble that the as-yet unofficial rapid charging standard would be officially adopted in the U.S.

John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010

John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010

Next year, the fast charging port will come as standard on the 2012 Nissan Leaf SL.

The sales milestone comes in a month where between 900 and 950 Leafs are expected to enter private ownership, slowly delivering the 2011 Leaf to the 2,000 or so remaining customers patiently waiting for a delivery in the areas actually selling the Leaf. 

But that says nothing of the estimated 18,000 people who have paid $99 to be on Nissan’s pre-reservation waiting list in areas where the Leaf won’t be sold until sometime in 2012. 

For them, the long wait continues, however uncomfortable that may be.

[Nissan]

+++++++++++

Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook andTwitter.