Nissan to ‘mass market’ electric cars !!!

Nissan to ‘mass market’ electric cars
By Jonathan Soble in Yokohama, Japan
Published: August 2 2009 14:30 | Last updated: August 2 2009 14:30

Pure-electric vehicles could account for 10 per cent of all new car purchases by 2020, Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, predicted on Sunday as he unveiled the Leaf, an emissions-free family hatchback the Japanese carmaker is aiming at mass-market buyers.

Mr Ghosn said at Nissan’s new global headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo: “We don’t see the electric car as a niche car. We see it as a mass-market car.”

Powered by an 80kW electric motor and rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the Leaf will be introduced in Japan and the US late next year. From 2012, when Nissan aims to begin selling the Leaf worldwide, it plans to build 200,000 of thm a year – by far the most ambitious production target for an all-electric vehicle.

Noboru Tateishi, programme director for electric vehicles, said Nissan planned eventually to build the Leaf at its UK assembly plant in Sunderland. So far, the company has designated factories in Oppama, Japan, and Smyrna, Tennessee as initial production sites, although battery production will also take place in the UK and Portugal.

In June, Nissan received a $1.6bn low-interest loan from the US government to retool the Smyrna plant for electric-car production. The British and Portuguese governments also have offered low-interest loans and other incentives.

Nissan said the Leaf could travel at least 160km (100 miles) on a full charge, a range it said exceeded the typical daily driving needs of 70 per cent of car owners.

The car can be recharged in eight hours from a standard home wall socket. It can also be charged to 80 per cent capacity in 30 minutes using a high-powered “quick charger” Nissan is pushing to have installed in petrol stations, car parks and other public facilities.

The question of recharging infrastructure remains a considerable obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric cars, according to analysts.

Nissan still has to win over doubters. CSM Worldwide market research has estimated that global carmakers will together build just 100,000 electric cars by 2015. JPMorgan analysts expect cheaper petrol-electric hybrids to account for 13 per cent of sales by 2020.

Other carmakers are also testing the all-electric market, however. Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors is to begin selling a smaller electric car, the iMiev, in Japan this month. It has priced the car at Y4.6m ($48,600) – about three times more than a petrol version of the same car – and is eyeing annual output of 30,000 units.

Nissan has not set a price for the Leaf but said on Sunday its cost would be “competitive” with “well-equipped” petrol-powered cars in the same class. The price will not include the battery, however, which drivers will lease separately from the carmaker.