Nissan eyes mass market for Leaf

Nissan is preparing a major push for its Leaf electric car brand in a bid to take advantage of an expected surge in demand for electrical vehicles over the next ten years. 

Nissan Leaf

Ahead of a “mass market campaign” in the next two years, a CRM drive will target two distinct audiences with an email and direct campaign created by TMW.

“Green” consumers will receive messaging about the car’s zero emissions, high speed and charging options, while a “tech” audience will be targeted with messaging about the Leaf’s “unique” technology including its integrated navigation and telematics system and smartphone app that lets drivers pre-set the car’s heating and air-conditioning as well as plan journeys before they get into the car.

Yasmin Al Jeboury, Nissan CRM manager, told Marketing Week that the CRM campaign and recent social media activity for Leaf provides the information needed “to build up a much bigger strategy in future for when we do go mass market with this car.”

“We’re making a massive investment and this is going to be a big volume line. It’s not a niche model it’s a family car and that’s what will make it successful. [electric cars] have to do what normal cars do – that’s sometimes forgotten with other electric vehicles and marketing that’s out there,” she says.

The fledgling electric vehicles market saw just 471 new pure-electric cars registered in the year to May, down 7.5% from 509 in the same period in 2011, according to SMMT figures, but the market is expected to grow incrementally as more models become available.

The SMMT expects electric vehicles to take five or 10 years to reach mass market share of around 30 of 40%.

Nissan sees the Leaf, which launched in 2011, as a mass market vehicle and aims to be rolling out 10,000 cars in the next 18 months to two years.

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