13 Straight Months Of Sales Records For Nissan

The Nissan Leaf has sold more than 24,000 this year, making it the best selling EV with two months to go in the year. Credit: Nissan

Automakers release sales figures Monday, and Franklin-based Nissan North America is out first with another big month, stringing together 13 months of record sales.

While lower gas prices are thought to be fueling increased sales across the industry, Nissan’s fuel-efficient models are the ones lifting totals. Sales of the Sentra jumped more than 50 percent compared to the prior year. The Versa was up nearly 30 percent in October and so was the all-electric LEAF, which is built in Smyrna. (See model-by-model totals here)

“High consumer confidence and low gas prices helped Nissan set our 13^th consecutive monthly sales record in October. We expect that these factors will continue to boost auto sales for the last two months of 2014,” Nissan senior vice president Fred Diaz said in a statement.

Nissan’s small crossover SUV – the Rogue – continues to sell well too. But otherwise, trucks and SUVs are down for the year. So is the company’s luxury brand – Infiniti.

Across the industry, analysts expect this could be the strongest October sales in a decade.