(Yokohama) Japanese automaker Nissan, a historical electric pioneer, said Monday it is aiming for a 50% share for its electrified vehicles (electric and hybrid) in its global sales by 2030, up from around 10% in 2020 .
Nissan intends to launch 23 new electrified models, including 15 all electric, by the financial year 2030-2031, announced the group as part of the presentation of its long-term strategy “Ambition 2030”.
20 electrified models by 2026-2027
Twenty of these models will hit the market in the next five years, said Nissan, which is targeting more than 75% of electrified sales in Europe by its 2026-2027 fiscal year.
This share is expected to rise to over 55% in Japan over the same period, and over 40% in China. In the United States, Nissan expects its future electric vehicles to account for 40% of its sales in 2030/31.
Such a vision was needed in the face of the “imminent and unavoidable challenge” of the climate crisis, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said Monday at an online press conference.
The group intends to invest 2000 billion yen (22.5 billion Canadian dollars at the current rate) in the next five years to accelerate its electric shift, that is to say twice what it had invested in this field over the period 2010- 2020, Uchida said.
A fundamental trend
The group unveiled on Monday four electric prototypes: a crossover with clean lines and futuristic called “Chill-out”, as well as the first images of a convertible, a light utility vehicle and a van.
Nissan was one of the world pioneers of electric vehicles, with its Leaf model released in 2010. But it was overtaken in this segment currently dominated by the American Tesla, and automotive giants like Volkswagen are now putting the package together to accelerate in this rapidly expanding field.
But Nissan’s long experience in electrics is a valuable advantage, its operational director Ashwani Gupta praised Monday at the group’s headquarters in Yokohama (southwest of Tokyo).
In 2010 “the market did not exist, customers did not ask for it. So what we are doing today is first to capitalize on the strengths that we have accumulated over the past 11 years. […], not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of customers who have used our electric cars, ”explained Mr. Gupta.
Other major manufacturers have already promised to gradually withdraw from thermal vehicles or to completely stop selling them in the long term. Renault is targeting a 65% share of electrified vehicles in its sales in Europe in 2025, and 90% in 2030.
Among the other Japanese manufacturers, Toyota, which still relies heavily on hybrid technologies, is targeting by 2030 100% of electrified sales (including hybrids) in Europe, 70% in North America and 100% in China in 2035. Honda has set itself the ambitious goal of 100% electric worldwide sales this year by 2040.
Towards solid batteries
Nissan also announced last summer the construction of a battery mega-factory in the United Kingdom next to its existing automobile plant in Sunderland, in partnership with the Chinese Envision AESC.
This integrated factory model must be replicated in the other key markets of the group, which intends to equip its vehicles with its own new generation electric batteries (in solid state) from 2028/29, while a prototype should be finalized by 2024.
Solid batteries are an evolution of current lithium-ion batteries, in which the liquid electrolyte is replaced by a solid material (a polymer or inorganic powders similar to a kind of ceramic).
This still emerging technology gives hope for higher performance for significantly reduced weight and costs. It would also make it possible to do away with critical materials such as cobalt.
After two catastrophic annual exercises under the effect of a radical austerity cure launched in the wake of the resounding ousting at the end of 2018 of its former big boss Carlos Ghosn, then of the pandemic, Nissan is doing better.
Despite the global shortage of semiconductors and the rise in commodity prices, the group tripled in early November its net profit forecast for its 2021/22 fiscal year which will end on March 31, now anticipating 180 billion yen (2 billion yen). Canadian dollars).