Nissan Motor Co. said beginning this month it will boost shipments of Leaf battery-electric cars to the U.S., where it has made about 500 deliveries since late December.
The company, with 20,000 customers waiting to receive cars, this week got its first shipment of the cars since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, said Carlos Tavares, chairman of Nissan's Americas operation. Nissan aims to fill all initial orders in seven regional markets within months, with the remaining U.S. cars to be delivered later, he said.
"Nissan Leaf deliveries are about to grow from the few hundreds to the many thousands," Tavares said Thursday at the New York International Auto Show. "All current customer orders will be fulfilled by the end of this summer."