70,000 EVs Just The Beginning, Carlos Ghosn Says
Renault and Nissan have together already sold an impressive 70,000 electric cars, but that’s just the beginning according to their CEO, Carlos Ghosn. When speaking at the Geneva Motor Show last week, he stated that the EV automotive landscape was changing, along with people’s perceptions of the vehicles.
“The 70,000 people today who drive our electric cars are very happy with them,” Ghosn said, according to an AutoblogGreen report.
“What is interesting about electric cars is that the perception has changed. Four or five years ago, when we started with electric cars, people considered the electric car like a golf cart. But with with Leaf and now the Zoe, these are very good cars – performance, acceleration, styling, comfort. The 70,000 people today who drive our electric cars are very happy with them.”
As Ghosn notes, customer satisfaction with EVs is largely influenced by the local infrastructure of the region where the customer lives. But all that it really comes down to is whether or not the customer has either good range or very widespread charging stations — with one of those, the customer is happy.
With EV charging infrastructure development increasing at a very rapid rate, that should no longer be an issue within the near future, as Estonia’s nationwide system of fast-charging stations for EVs demonstrates.
With regards to Nissan’s and Renault’s future approach to EVs, Ghosn has this to say: “Each company is going to have a different strategy. Nissan preferred not to have cars which are not gasoline engines transformed into electric cars. (And with regards to Renault) I am going to move directly with these cars first: Fluence, Kangoo. Nissan said I’m going to start with the Leaf which exists only as an electric. The Zoe and Twizy exist only as electrics, and from time to time having different strategies is not so bad. You don’t need to put all your eggs in one basket and have the same strategies just because you are allied. You can test different solutions and different approaches, as long as you share basic elements.”
Image Credit: Renault Fluence via Wikimedia Commons
Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Whether you have solar power or not, please complete our latest solar power survey.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy
