So far, the Nissan Leaf EV is barely a sprout based on global sales of 46,000 after two years.
Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said today in Yokohama that the Japanese automaker plans to add 15 hybrid models by 2016. Hybrids, of course, were long mocked by Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who is betting billions through the Renault Nissan Alliance to develop and sell electric vehicles. Ghosn famously dismissed Toyota’s early hybrid efforts as an expensive stunt, but it appears the Number Two Japanese automaker is finally bowing to the marketplace reality that hybrids are a short-term solution to increasing fuel economy that buyers will consider. (Read AutoInformed on Milestones – Toyota Motor Sells 4 Million Hybrid Vehicles)
Longer term, Nissan said it would reduce total corporate C02 emissions in the 2020s, even though vehicle sales are projected to rise significantly. Nissan today claimed a 19% rise in average fuel economy since 2005 in major markets.
In the U.S., Nissan said that with two years of Nissan Leaf sales just completed, the company would launch of the United States’ largest lithium-ion automotive battery plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The facility – which is making battery components for the ramp-up of production of the all-electric, zero-emission 2013 Nissan Leaf early next year – is said to be one of three of its kind in the world operated by a major automaker. U.S. taxpayers subsidized the plant through a $1.4 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Since December 2010, Nissan has delivered more order celebrex 200mg than 18,000 Leafs to U.S. customers and more than 46,000 worldwide, making it the most successful 100% electric vehicle in history. However, Nissan’s sales projection that EVs would comprise 20% of total sales by the end of this decade is – thus far – as unrealistic as a politician’s campaign promises.
While existing buyers of electric vehicles are true EV believers, the vast majority of car shoppers are not. In a recent study, nearly half of current EV buyers claim the best benefit of their ac/dc wheels is lower emissions when compared with emissions from gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. However, it’s not clear if they know how their electricity is generated, which makes all the difference to the validity of environmental claims made for EVs. (Read AutoInformed on Green Talk from EV Makers Ignores Key Buyer Concern – Cost)
When you get past this puddle of EV buyers – it is hardly a pool, let alone a Great Lake – they comprise only about 2.5 % of the current U.S. new vehicle market of 14.5 million on an annual basis. Moreover, that small number is if you include the hybrids as EVs that Nissan currently lacks. Pure EVs have less than a 1% marketshare – so other people need to be brought into the clan if optimistic projections are to become real sales. How auto manufacturers will recoup the billions invested so far in electric modes of transportation, prompted almost entirely by government regulations that give them fuel economy credits that allow them to keep producing more popular and less efficient vehicles, remains to be seen.
