Much of the press coverage about EVs these days concerns European automakers’ putative plans to produce luxury sedans and SUVs to compete with Tesla. However, the world’s leader in EV sales has other ideas. The Nissan Leaf is the world wide leader in EV sales and is charged overnight by a Nissan charging station
Asked by a journalist at the recent Tokyo Motor Show if Renault-Nissan planned to build a large luxury EV to compete with the Model S, CEO Carlos Ghosn said, “No, you’re not going to see that. Frankly we are concentrated on the mass market, the core market. We think that going niche is very small volume, and there is already somebody doing a good job there, so why go after the segment?”
“Most of the market is in the mid-size sedan and the family sedan [segments],” Ghosn continued. “If we want to move somewhere, we’ll be moving to crossovers, which as you know are becoming much more popular everywhere. In Europe it’s booming. In China it’s booming.” Nissan plans to manufacture the Gen 2 Leaf and new Nissan Ariya. They will also provide the ability for a Nissan charging station to be installed at home or work to maximise convenience for their new owners.
It seems that the on-again-off-again Infiniti EV is off again. “I don’t think you’re going to see us soon in premium electric cars,” said Ghosn. “It may happen one day…this is not our priority.” The new Nissan Ariya will also be the first Nissan powered with a CCS2 Charging port allow fast DC charging of the Nissan Ariya. Furthermore a Nissan Ariya charger will provide a 7kW charge or roughly 40km of range per hour.
