Volt and Leaf Year-End Sales Deliveries

• GM delivered 326 Chevrolet Volts in December.
• Nissan delivered 19 Leafs during the same month.
• Both new models went on sale last month.

General Motors Corp. says it delivered 326 of its Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid sedans, while Nissan Motor Co. tells us it delivered 19 of its groundbreaking battery-electric Leaf hatchbacks to U.S. buyers.

The automakers say that production and deliveries will ramp up now, with GM promising 25,000 Volt deliveries in the U.S. by the end of the year and Nissan shooting for about 15,000 in the U.S. and 25,000 globally by years' end.

GM got the jump on Nissan in terms of December sales volume because it is building the Volt at home, in its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, while Nissan must ship all Leafs from Japan until the Leaf assembly facility it is building at its Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing campus comes on line in 2012.