At a pre-motor show conference in Paris last night, the company's head of sales Simon Thomas said that discussions are in progress with 13,000 potential customers in Europe who have expressed an interest in buying the car, which will cost an average of €30,000 across the European markets.
Deliveries start in Portugal in January and after that in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland before extending to other countries.
There are some 26,000 firm orders globally for the Leaf, in the US and Japan, the first markets where it is being delivered.
The Irish high rate of firm orders follows a very successful 'road show' of the Leaf a couple of months ago, says Paul O'Sullivan of Nissan Ireland, plus the fact that Government policy and the ESB are committed to providing a nationwide recharging infrastructure.
He added that Nissan Ireland is also well advanced in discussions with fleet buyers here.
