The 2018 LEAF reveal confirmed what was already a near certainty.
The Tesla model 3 simply is not competitive with the LEAF, due to its very high price, answering this topic question, with:
DUH.
2018 LEAF:
edatoakrun said:
$36,850, fully loaded.
About the same price as the as-yet-unseen Tesla model 3 stripper.
https://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/2018-leaf/configure/summary...
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=24488&start=50
BEV buyers who in the midst of
middle-aged panic (high-spending consumers of plastic surgery and hair transplants) will buy the model 3 in the ~$50 k to
fully-loaded ~$100 k (?) configurations TSLA will concentrate on delivering.
Perhaps there will be enough of these buyers, willing to spend enough per car, to eventually make the model 3 profitable...
but I doubt it.
The LEAF, which will be delivered at about half the average model 3 sales price, is aimed directly at the mass market, the first BEV designed and built to compete directly with ICEVs.
The LEAF's success in the mass-market is not a forgone conclusion, because it depends on governments worldwide eventually ending their market incentives favoring ICEV and gasoline sales (and nowhere in the world are these higher than the US) in the same time frame as BEV incentives are phased out, but with the LEAF (and future models developed from the same platform) Nissan has built the first BEV with a real chance.