First Nissan LEAF Delivered To North Bay San Francisco Resident

Today in San Francisco, the first Nissan LEAF was plugged in and delivered to its North Bay owner. The delivery marks the follow through of a promise by San Francisco’s Mayor Gaven Newsom and Nissan—the delivery of zero emission, electric powered vehicles to the streets of San Francisco. Now we could give them grief for being three days late since the original promise of one year would have been counted from December 8^th, 2009, but instead we congratulate the many agencies working together with Mayor Newsom and Nissan. We also congratulate the first Nissan LEAL SL owner in America, Olivier Chalouhi and his family.This delivery marks only one of many delivery firsts with a San Diego resident having their new Nissan LEAF delivered on Monday and then delivers spanning Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee. In fact, during the Delivery Press Conference today in San Francisco, Carlos Tavares, Chairman of Nissan Americas, promised that “any reservationists who ordered a car in our first seven launch markets will be driving their Nissan LEAFs at the latest by the end of summer 2011.”

That is quite a promise, but we believe Nissan when they say they will follow through. Tavares went on to say during the press conference that “while others focused on bridge technologies we developed a viable all electric vehicle.” Of course, we must acknowledge that Mitsubishi is also bringing the Mitsubishi “i” to market in the U.S., as well as, the Tesla—another company that started sales in California. That said, Nissan is the first to offer a car that is more in line with what Americans’ want in size, style, performance and price. Nissan isn’t done either. “Our investment and hard work will continue with the launch of three other all-electric vehicles in the coming years,” said Tavares.

Bottom line—Nissan is delivering on their promises and creating history at the same time. Availability of the Nissan LEAF in every market across the U.S. is expected by 2012. Be sure to check out the full Delivery Press Conference video below.

[Source: Nissan]