Renault-Nissan sells its 100,000th zero-emission car

Paris, July 24, 2013: The Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold its 100,000th zero-emission car. The 100,000th customer was American graduate student Allison Howard, who became an owner of Nissan Leaf earlier this month and drives the car to Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Electric cars from Renault and Nissan have driven approximately 841 million zero-emission kilometers -- enough to circle the earth more than 20,000 times. Together, they represent 53 million liters of oil saved and 124 million kg of C02 that have not been emitted.

“The age of the mainstream zero-emission vehicle is here,” said Renault-Nissan Alliance chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn. “We expect demand to keep growing as the charging infrastructure develops – and we remain 100 percent committed to zero-emission technology for the long term.”

Renault-Nissan has sold more zero-emission cars than all other major automakers combined.

The very first EV from the Alliance is a Nissan Leaf owned by engineer Olivier Chalouhi in California’s Silicon Valley. He bought the Leaf when it debuted in December 2010. More than 71,000 people worldwide have bought the Leaf, the world’s best-selling electric vehicle which makes up more than half of all global sales of pure electric cars. The car won the 2011 World Car of the Year, European Car of the Year 2011 and Car of the Year Japan 2011-2012 awards.

The top markets for the Leaf are the United States with about 30,000 units, Japan with 28,000 units, and Europe with 12,000 units.