Nissan: From fringes to the mass market

Nissan is focusing on an electric future, believing the internal-combustion engine is reaching its technical limit. Photo / Supplied

Nissan has announced that - along with alliance partner Renault - it aims to sell up to 1.5 million EVs (electric vehicles) worldwide by the end of the 2016 financial year.

Dubbed Nissan Green Programme 2016 (NGP2016), the strategy takes in new hybrid, pure-electric and fuel-cell vehicles over the next five years, in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent compared with 2005/6 levels, on the way to an 80 per cent cut by 2050, says industry website goauto.com.

A fall in natural resource usage from 80 per cent today to 75 per cent in 2016 and then 30 per cent in 40 years' time is Nissan's long-term vision.

The NGP2016 plan - which also includes an all-new CVT transmission specifically designed for petrol/electric hybrid drivetrains, beginning with next year's US Altima - has come about as Nissan believes the internal-combustion engine is reaching its technical limit in terms of reducing consumption and emissions.

The aim is to move EVs from the fringes to mass-market acceptance, as the unit price for expensive parts such as lithium-ion batteries falls, while the global infrastructure needed to serve electrification improves. It is the natural follow-up to the firm's NGP2010 strategy, which gave rise to the Leaf EV. Nissan says it is holding almost 20,000 orders, making the five-seat, five-door hatchback the most successful electric car in history.

It will be joined by three more pure EVs introduced before April 2017 - said to be an Infiniti-based C-segment luxury car in the mould of the upcoming Audi A3 e-tron, a zero-emissions commercial vehicle and a sports car.

Nissan may also be investigating a battery-powered city car based on the Renault Zoe hatch to be unveiled next year. It has already previewed several Pivo concept cars that fit this bill at the Tokyo Motor Show since 2005.

Aiding the acceptance of these EVs will be new wireless charging technology available in homes, workplaces and public parking spaces as an alternative to heavy and cumbersome cables. Nissan says wireless charging stations are waterproof and safe, while being only about 5-10 per cent less efficient than conventional cable-based systems.

Improved fast-charging technology and infrastructure is also coming, as is an in-vehicle "discharge" system that can feed electricity back into the grid during peak times or provide power to homes should the need arise.

Meanwhile, a fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) developed in conjunction with Daimler as part of a technology and model-sharing programme announced two years ago is vital to the NGP2016 plan. It is confirmation that Nissan's first hydrogen-powered FCV will enable it to join Toyota in hitting the market within the next five years.

Key to Nissan's FCV is its latest fuel cell stack system, unveiled in October, featuring an 85kW output in a package that is 2.5 times smaller and just one-third of the weight of the item it previewed in a 2005 X-Trail-based FCV. Making vehicles lighter in the future, too, is vital to the development of EVs, with Nissan already announcing a big increase in the use of ultra-high-tensile steels.