Nissan has announced that it has sold 30,200 all-electric Leaf cars in 2014, which is the first time any plug-in has sold more than 30,000 units in a single year.

"Now in its fifth model year, the Nissan Leaf is more popular than ever and continues to bring new buyers to Nissan," said Brendan Jones, director, Nissan Electric Vehicle Sales and Infrastructure. "From the beginning our vision was to bring electric vehicles to the mass market in a practical and fun-to-drive package, which is what makes Nissan LEAF the best-selling electric car in the world."

Last month, Nissan sold 3,102 all-electric Leafs, up 22.7 percent from the prior year and a December record.

With seating for up to five passengers, the all-electric Nissan Leaf boasts an EPA-estimated driving range of 84 miles (134km) on a fully-charged battery and MPGe ratings of 126 city, 101 highway and 114 combined.

Leaf covers more miles than the average petrol or diesel vehicles

Nissan has also revealed that European owners of the 100 percent electric car travel more than 50 percent further per year (10,307 miles) than the European average for a traditional internal combustion-powered vehicle (6,721 miles).

According to latest figures, drivers of traditional petrol or diesel powered cars covered an average of 129 miles per week. Thanks to the CarWings telemetry in the Leaf, which records real life driver data, Nissan has been able to report that its European drivers amass on average 198 miles a week in their Leaf all without any exhaust emissions.

Jean-Pierre Diernaz, director of Electric Vehicles for Nissan in Europe, said: “Since the beginning we have said that the Leaf is much more than just a city car or second car and now we can show the data that proves this. Our customers frequently tell us that they buy the Leaf as a second car, but end up using it far more than their other vehicle and the information we receive from CarWings reinforces that message. “The customers tell us this is because the car has very low fuel and servicing costs and that along with the smooth, almost silent ride of the Leaf make it difficult to go back to a diesel or petrol car.”

The car has collectively clocked up an impressive one billion kilometres worldwide. Nissan recently added to its all-electric line-up with the launch of the e-NV200, a zero-emission, compact city van.