Nissan: We're sticking with EV!

Nissan still believes in pure electric vehicles despite poor sales, battery issues for the Leaf hatch and the announcement it will bring 16 hybrid vehicles to market by 2016.

“We are absolutely committed to zero emissions,” declared Nissan Executive Vice-President Andy Palmer at the Detroit motor show this week.

“When you pioneer a technology are there things that you learn from it? Of course there are.”

Mr Palmer was speaking to motoring.com.au shortly after the reveal of the Resonance concept, which previews the third-generation Murano and is powered by a V6 hybrid drive system.

The production version of the Murano, due by 2015, will also have the option of a petrol-electric drivetrain, while other Nissans offering hybrid technology will include the new Pathfinder mid-size SUV and all-new Altima large sedan.

All three are headed for Australia – the Altima and Pathfinder later this year - but whether hybrid will be offered with any of them here is yet to be revealed.

Nissan’s move to dramatically bolster its hybrid portfolio is being taken by industry analysts as proof it went too hard too soon on EVs, giving up valuable sales ground to hybrid leader Toyota as a result.

Audi has revealed it has postponed the introduction of its all-electric ‘etron’ models and will instead concentrate on diesel and hybrid technology, while the majority of BMW’s electrified i3s model sold globally will not be the pure EV but the plug-in hybrid version, which will be the only i3 available in Australia from early next year.

“What Nissan … learned is that while there is an audience for electric cars, it is much smaller than anybody thought,” CLSA Pacific Markets analyst Christopher Richter told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Palmer said Nissan remained committed to building four EVs - three of which, including the Infiniti LE small car - are yet to be launched.

“EV represents the halo of our technology,” he said. “We bring the battery technology and more so the motor technology down into hybrid.”

Mr Palmer defended the sales rate of the Leaf, which missed its US sales goal of 20,000 by more than half in 2012.

“We are selling well over 1000 per month in the United States right now and there is 95 per cent customer satisfaction on that car.

“We understand there are two or three major blockages to purchase. One is price and the worry that government incentives will go away, or not come. The second blockage has been recharging infrastructure … Where the infrastucture is better you get less range anxiety.”

Significant price cuts were announced for the 2013 model Leaf last week, coinciding with the start of US production. That follows on from the confirmation of an expanded cruising range to nearly 230km (using Japanese test methods), a cut in charging time to around four hours and a reduction in kerb weight.

With incentives, a new base model Leaf S is now available for as little as $18,800 in the US, while in Australia - where no incentives apply - the price has just dipped from $51,599 plus on-roads to $46,990 drive-away for the run-out 2012 Leaf.

Nissan has also had to fight bad publicity in the US, especially in Arizona where heat has caused premature loss issues. Mr Palmer flew to Scottsdale to meet with unhappy Leaf owners and two cars have been bought back.

A battery guarantee of nine bars (out of 12 on the gauge) after five years or 60,000 miles has also been instituted.

“If you can find another electrical device anywhere in the world where somebody is underwriting the battery source of health I haven’t seen it yet,” Mr Palmer said.

“We understood there was anxiety there and we understood that some people felt we have misled them in some way, so we have made it absolutely 100 per cent clear this is what the battery is capable of doing.”

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