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Nissan's electric Leaf set for production

Nissan Leaf Forum.net - Nissan Motor Co. has collected nearly 20,000 pre-orders for an all-electric Leaf car that it plans to start selling in the United States and Japan in December.

"The production for 2010 is already sold out," said Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan and its French partner and shareholder Renault SA.

Nissan has gathered 13,000 pre-orders from prospective American buyers who paid a $100 refundable deposit, and 6,000 pre-orders in Japan, Ghosn said. The automaker will start taking firm orders in August.

Speaking before the Detroit Economic Club, Ghosn said the nearly 20,000 hand-raisers were individuals, not fleet buyers.

The battery-powered Leaf, expected to cost around $25,000 after U.S. federal and state incentives for clean car purchases, is the first of several electric cars that Renault and Nissan will market globally. By 2013, they expect to sell a combined 500,000 electric cars under the Renault, Nissan and Infiniti brands.

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