Mygreenwheels

If Nissan is really planning to have sold a staggering 500,000 electric cars worldwide by 2013, it's certainly going to be easy for them in the US. According to this article perks are pouring in for buyers of the Nissan Leaf - tax credits, rebate cheques, government giveaways, personalised home visits and even customer service calls from the company's top execs.

Nissan Leaf electric carTake this example: one buyer pays his $99 deposit on a Leaf and immediately gets a promise of a federal tax credit amounting to $7,500, a cash rebate of $2,500 from the state and a $3,000 home-charging unit with the compliments of the Energy Department. Then when he has some basic questions about the car, he gets a 40-minute phone call from a big cheese in Nissan's corporate planning department.

While US government subsidies are slicing thousands of bucks off the Leaf's $32,780 sticker price, there are plenty of other benefits piling up. These may include free parking in some cities and use of the express lanes normally reserved for cars with multiple passengers or free charging stations along main stretches of freeway.

Nissan must be chuffed to bits at all this. They expect their typical Leaf buyer to be affluent, university educated consumers in their mid-40s who are both environmentally sensitive and willing to take the chance that EV technology will be as safe and reliable as ye olde internal combustion engine. But even better than that, they reckon that around 85% of the people who have reserved a Leaf are not previous Nissan owners, so it's a whole new audience for Nissan as a brand and they're really going for it. They've even hired a firm to make 'home visits' to prospective buyers to answer questions and make sure their garages are properly fitted out for the vehicle.

Leaf buyers are reportedly amazed to be getting this amount of personal attention from a large car company like Nissan, so I can just imagine them all turning into nice little brand ambassadors overnight. It might not look like a very exciting car, but all this TLC from the brand when packaged with the perks is going to win over plenty of converts. And I've just read that in Europe Nissan are even going to offer a free week's rental of a gas-guzzler for those who are finding it hard to wean themselves away from petrol.