Nissan’s all electric vehicle, the Leaf, has sold out well before the first one will roll off the line.

“We have 13,000 orders in the US and 6,000 orders in Japan,” Ghosn said at a news conference in Detroit, the US auto industry capital.

Ghosn said that all of the US orders had come from individuals and not from government entities, whereas some orders in Japan were for municipal fleets.

“I don’t think we’re going to have a problem marketing and selling these cars for the first two or three years,” the Nissan president and chief executive said, adding that tax incentives had made the car very popular in California.

The Leaf — an acronym for Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable, Family — is billed by Nissan as the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle with zero emissions.

The car will start being delivered in December of this year for Japan and the US.  European countries will start deliveries a few months later.  It will be assembled in Tennessee for US deliveries and Yokosuka for Japan.  No word yet as to which factory will supply European deliveries.