Out of 56,393 sales of electric vehicles across Europe last year, the Leaf accounted for 14,658 (26%) of registrations.
In second place, Renault sold 11,227 models of its Zoe (20% of sales), and third-place Tesla sold 8,734 examples of its Model S (15%).
Sales of the Leaf were particularly strong in the UK – where 55% of buyers of pure electric cars go to Nissan. With 4,051 Leaf sales in the UK in 2014, Nissan sold more than double the number it produced for the UK market in 2013 (1,812).
Nissan Europe senior vice president of sales and marketing, Guillaume Cartier, said: “We can now see the impact that word of mouth is having on our sales, with 95 percent of our customers happy to recommend their car to a friend and 50 percent saying they would never go back to diesel or petrol.
“This kind of powerful advocacy, combined with an increasing awareness of the massive running cost savings electric car drivers experience, is why our Nissan Leaf sales continue to grow.”
