Nissan promises more affordable EVs

The breakneck rise of Chinese electric cars has forced Nissan into a fundamental rethink of its own future plans, including coming up with more ways to cut the cost of its EVs.

The admission came from Nissan global CEO Makoto Uchida at last week’s Japan Mobility Show, where the Japanese giant presented five electric concepts including a preview of a 1000kW GT-R.

He described the Chinese EV roll-out as a “wake-up call” and “a very strong wave”.

Nissan, which celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2023, was far from alone among Japanese brands making a big – if belated – EV effort at the first Tokyo motor show since 2019.

Toyota, its luxury subsidiary Lexus, Honda, Subaru and Suzuki all presented EV concepts with production ambitions.

They are reacting to a Chinese auto industry that is flooding the world with affordable EVs. About 1.3 million are expected to be exported in 2023 – almost double the 2022 number. The onslaught is already the subject of a European Commission investigation for product dumping.

“We have Chinese who are coming very strongly in every market,” Uchida said at a press conference. “And from that point of view we really need to work harder to transform ourselves.”

Uchida, who became CEO in 2019, stopped short of specifically declaring the Nissan Ambition 2030 plan announced in November 2021 as out of date, but he certainly suggested it was in need of reform.

Already upgraded once, the plan calls for 27 electrified vehicles including 19 pure EVs to be launched by fiscal year 2030. It also promises a new-generation electric motor in 2025 and the introduction of solid-state batteries in its production vehicles from 2028.

“We announced mission 2030 in 2021. Since then the situation has changed a lot,” he said.

“If you look at the world today, before COVID automotive was going through a once in 100-year transformation. After that we had a lot of supply chain issues, you had a lot of things happening in the world.

“One thing I can say is we are not going to continue the past way.

“If you look at the world, it is evolving at a very high speed when we talk about electrification. We thought that the pace of electrification was more step by step. But it’s absolutely much faster.”

EVs that Nissan is known to be launching soon include a new third generation of its ground-breaking LEAF, which is expected to transform from a small hatch to a compact SUV/crossover.

Pressed specifically on the price advantage that Chinese EVs have over their rivals, Uchida refused to say if governments should offer protection such as tariffs against Chinese imports. But he did say Nissan was working to become more price competitive.

“The EV MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) is coming down massively faster because of competition,” he said. “At Nissan we have a lot of idea how the cost can be effective.

“We are now preparing how… we could compete more on the cost and how we could have acceptable pricing for the EV market.”

Nissan has had massive success with the tiny Sakura electric kei-car in Japan. Priced at the equivalent of $25,000, it is claiming close to half all electric car sales.

But in ruling out the Sakura EV for foreign markets, Uchida confirmed other affordable EV options were coming.

“Not cheap and small, but something affordable is my thinking…. that is what we have to do,” he said.

Uchida’s statements were light on detail, but he fleetingly mentioned many aspects of the Nissan business that were under study including product attractiveness, time to market, construction methods, cost reduction and even forging partnerships beyond the alliance with Renault and Nissan.

He said the company had already restructured its executive management committee to be less centralised in its decision making and to have elevated input from product planning and regions.

“Now the world is more fragmented, the pace of electrification is more fragmented, the regulation is totally different,” he said.

“We need to anticipate, we need to be prepared to plan, we need to plan and for me is that is no longer on the past way and how we can properly address our future roles in the way of the management of the company.

“We have a lot of process add-on, we have a lot of belief that what we think is the best for the customer,” he said.

“Yes there are great competency that we further would like to grow, but a lot of things we need to change… and what are we going to do.

“That is all the discussion that we are having internally.”

Apart from the gob-smacking Hyper Force concept, Nissan used the Japan Mobility Show to reveal four other Hyper concepts including the Tourer, Adventure, Punk and Urban (pictured), which could preview the next-gen Nissan LEAF.

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