Nissan celebrates the 250,000th LEAF EV in Sunderland with a LEAF-powered Christmas tree

Nissan celebrates the production of the 250,000th LEAF EV in Sunderland with a Christmas tree powered by the LEAF’s V2X.

The car world may now be driving headlong into electric cars with new EVs from almost every car maker on the planet on what seems like an almost daily basis.

But back in 2009, the world was a very different place, with ICE cars accounting for virtually every new car on offer and diesel dominating as the government incentivised car buyers to burn oil. And then along came the Nissan LEAF, an electric car on sale from a major car maker when almost no one was interested in EVs.

It was a bold move by Nissan – which could have gone horribly wrong – but it paid off, with Nissan celebrating the production of the 500,000th LEAF back in 2020.

Now, Nissan is celebrating the production of the 250,000th LEAF in Sunderland and, despite the LEAF being perhaps a bit behind the latest EVs, it’s still a decent EV at a sensible price (starting at around £32k) and still selling.

With a raft of updates since its arrival – and now in its second generation – the LEAF now comes with Nissan’s V2X power management which allows owners to turn their LEAF into a power pack to power external anything, so Nissan is celebrating its 250,000th LEAF rolling off the production line in Sunderland with a Christmas scene with lights powered by a LEAF. 

Nissan’s Alan Johnson said:

Passing a quarter of a million Nissan LEAF is a tremendous milestone, and demonstrates the electric vehicle manufacturing expertise we have built up at our plant over the past decade.

This year we have completely electrified the plant’s line-up with the new versions of Qashqai and Juke launched, so lighting up the Christmas tree with our original EV is a spectacular and appropriate way to end 2022.