New Nissan Electric Crossover Or Sports Car In The Offing, Hints Senior VP
Originally published on EV Obsession.
The senior Vice President at Nissan, Shiro Nakamura, recently gave a new interview to AutoCar, revealing that the company was working on a new vehicle architecture that could be used for either electric or conventional vehicles. The company is apparently currently considering the development of an electric crossover or sports car, going by his comments.
Here’s more: “We don’t want to limit our EVs just to the Leaf. We’re the leading EV manufacturer, but I don’t think we can make it just off one EV, so we want to grow the portfolio — that’s our next plan. It could be a crossover, it could be a sports car; we see much more opportunity for EVs than just a hatchback.”
It’s better than nothing, but one can’t help but think that Nissan’s plans will leave it in the dust so to speak, considering how rapidly the electric car sector is changing.
Here are some more thoughts along those lines… from our sister site Gas 2:
Those simple words clearly illustrate why Tesla is poised to take over the car business. Every other manufacturer is hedging its bets by building cars that can be powered by any source — gasoline, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery, CNG, LNG, propane, fuel cell, or magic dust. Only Tesla is all in on electric cars. It is years ahead of the competition. By the time the others get where Tesla is today, its lead on the industry will have only increased.
Nakamura says Nissan is thinking about making an electric sports car. Really? What is the sports car share of the global market — 1%? 2%? Why divert precious resources to build a sports car when the need for a long range electric car is critical? Nissan will be limping along with a short range sedan for another 2 years. By the time the second generation LEAF arrives, the original car will be nearly 8 years old. That’s an eternity in the car business.
Nissan may also build an electric crossover — some day. Well, d’uh, Nakamura-san. The crossover is only the hottest segment of the car market. Why in the world don’t you have an electric crossover in showrooms right now? How difficult would it be to turn the LEAF into a 5 door hatchback? Why are Chevrolet and Tesla able to promise electric cars with at least 200 miles of range when Nissan is stuck with a wimpy 107 mile battery?
That really is the question isn’t it? Were the other manufacturers just expecting that nothing would ever change? That Tesla would crash and burn? That their positions were untouchable? That short-term profits were more important than long-term vision?
Or perhaps Nissan is just aiming to milk profits on the LEAF for as long as possible before dropping the price dramatically as some rumors suggest?
Reprinted with permission.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
