Nissan Motor announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) every year by 2022, a six-fold jump from what it sold in 2017, and stated it had no plans to stop testing its self-driving cars on public roads, describing them safe.
Japan’s 2nd largest automaker and its competitors are planning to crank up development and production of electric vehicles in response to stringent emissions regulations across the world, even as demand for such vehicles is still limited because of their high cost and limited charging infrastructure.
Introduced as the world’s first mass-market all-battery electric vehicle in 2010, Nissan’s Leaf compact hatchback is the world’s best-selling EV, though sales have been about 300,000 units to this day.
The company now decides to concentrate its lower-emissions lineup on all-battery and gasoline-hybrid EVs instead of more expensive technologies including plug-in hybrids.
Nissan stated on Friday it would develop eight new all-battery EVs during the next five years, including four models for China. Its luxury Infiniti brand would start carrying new electric models from 2021, it added.
Through 2022, vehicles supported by its “e-Power” gasoline-hybrid technology would probably comprise the majority of Nissan’s electric line-up, it stated. Such vehicles use gasoline to power the car’s motor, requiring a much smaller battery compared to EVs and therefore are less costly to produce.
“The heart of our strategy in terms of electrification is battery EVs and e-Power technology,” Nissan Chief Planning Officer Philippe Klein informed reporters.
Issues about EV battery costs and components have urged many automakers to develop a range of lower emissions technologies, but Klein stated that Nissan would heavily forego plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell technologies, because of their low cost-performance at the moment.
In last year, Nissan sold 163,000 electric vehicles worldwide.
Nissan and its automaking partners, France’s Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors, together plan to release 17 electric models as part of their strategy to gain annual vehicle sales amounting to 14 million units by 2022, compared with 10.6 million units in last year.
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There’s only one problem with all this Sparky. Nissan dealers only want to sell SUVs and Trucks. My guess is Nissan hasn’t, and won’t bother telling their dealers their great plans to electrify the driving public. Here’s an idea, maybe if Nissan wants to sell more electric cars, they might try advertising them. Just more Nissan corporate BS.