A pre-production 2012 Nissan Leaf is shown during the first media preview day at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show in Chicago, Illinois February 9, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Frank PolichDETROIT | Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:26pm EDT
DETROIT (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd said on Friday it would repair more than 5,000 of its Nissan Leaf cars for a software glitch that has caused a number of the new electric vehicles to fail to start.
"This is not a safety issue as the vehicle will not stop running while being driven, but may not restart once it is turned off," Nissan said in a statement.
The repair campaign covers a total of about 5,300 Leaf vehicles in Japan, North America and Europe, Nissan said. Of the total, about 500 of the cars have been sold to U.S. customers.
Nissan will begin notifying Leaf drivers of the repair campaign next week via a message sent to the vehicle's on-board communications system.
The repair will fix programing in the vehicle control module of the vehicles, Nissan said.
Customers will be instructed to contact dealers for the free repair. In some cases, dealers will arrange to perform the software fix at a work place or a customer's home, Nissan spokesman Brian Brockman said.
"We are fully aware that this issue may have inconvenienced some of our customers," the automaker said in a statement.
The zero-emission Leaf represents Nissan's bid under Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn to take the lead in the emerging market for electric vehicles along with its French partner Renault SA.
Nissan launched the five-seater Leaf in Japan and the United States in December.
The automaker said earlier this month that a number of customers in both the United States and Japan had reported their Leafs would not start, a potentially costly setback for the high-stakes vehicle in its first months on the market.
(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; editing by Andre Grenon)
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