Nissan's Leaf sales spike in April

Sales of the all-electric Nissan Leaf soared in April, the automaker reported This week.

The Franklin-based Nissan North America sold 573 LEAFs in April, which beat the four previous months combined. Meanwhile, Chevrolet moved 493 Volts for the month of April.

Nissan expected April to be a very strong month for the LEAF, but even they didn’t expect to finish the month off as strong as they did. Last month, an executive for the car company estimated that sales of the Nissan LEAF would total 900 by the end of April. But once all of the numbers were in, the company realized they had sold 1,044 LEAFs since the model launched in December.

Nissan Motor Co. expects U.S. Leaf sales for 2011 to surpass 10,000 units. So far, the Chevy Volt has been leading in total sales with (2,029 sold, as compared to 1,044 for the Nissan LEAF). Even though both vehicles have yet to hit the markets nationwide, if sales spike that occurred in April’s continues, the Volt may very well slip to second place while the Nissan LEAF takes the lead.