Social Media Group Buy Signs Up 2,800 Electric Cars with Group Discounts

Posted on August 11, 2016 by J Sammy One comment

Individual car buyers on a Facebook page expressed intention to purchase Nissan Leaf at a discounted price. Individuals combined orders to a Group to purchase cars and other goods, as a way of driving down the price, are common in countries like China.

But over the last two years, they’ve emerged in other parts of the world as a way for electric-car advocates to accomplish several goals at once.

Buyers both get better deals on their desired vehicles and boost the number of plug-in cars on the road in a dramatic fashion, with media coverage as a bonus.

DON’T MISS: Group Buy Of 100Plus Fiat 500e Electric Cars Ignites ‘Feeding Frenzy’ (Mar 2015)

A group buy of Fiat 500e electric hatchbacks in the San Francisco Bay Area last year ultimately swelled to more than 100 buyers, lured in by low lease rates.

And two separate deals in Colorado late last year, organized by the South West Energy Efficiency Program, delivered dozens of Nissan Leafs for “effective prices” as low as $10,600 after discounts and state and federal incentives .

Now, a Quebec group has apparently found an astounding 2,800 buyers who say they are interested in purchasing 2016 Nissan Leaf electric cars.

The story comes courtesy of Autoblog Green, which notes that enrolling to indicate interest in the group buy requires only filling out a form on SurveyMonkey.

The purchase is the brainchild of Montreal resident Bruno Marcoux, whose personal Facebook page suggests he hopes to get to 3,000 indications of interest in the buy.

As is usually the case, a low price—roughly $12,000 in Canadian dollars in this case—proves to be the lure. The 2016 Leaf is retailed rice starts from $32,000 before incentives and cash rebates.

Last month, Nissan sold 152 Leafs in all of Canada.