As Nissan overhauls its roadmap for electric vehicles, will it cut back on gas engine development?
So far, Nissan has not been among a growing group of global automakers to set an end date — estimated or not — for sales of new vehicles with internal combustion engines.
If a Monday report from Nikkei Asia proving true, Nissan may be closer to seeing that sunset for the exhausts – that is, in a non-electrified form.
According to the report, Nissan will become the first major Japanese automaker to announce the end of internal combustion engine development in all major global markets – with the exception of the US, where it will continue with Limited quantity, mainly for pickup models.
Nissan North America declined to comment on the report, calling it speculation.
2022 Nissan Frontier equipped with off-road parts Nismo
There are currently two pickups in Nissan’s lineup, the V-6 engine Frontier and the larger, V-8 engine Titan. Neither is offered in hybrid or electric form, although according to a report last year Nissan may consider a compact electric truck.
Nissan has signaled that it will stop developing traditional petrol models for Europe – in part due to tough Euro 7 emissions regulations that will be introduced in phases starting in 2025 – as they turn to e-Power series hybrid technology. Last year, Nissan announced that an engine specifically designed for use with e-Power has achieved impressive results. 50% thermal efficiency through its limited operating range.
Nissan Surf-Out, Max-Out and Hang-Out concepts
Nissan Surf-Out concept
Nissan Surf-Out concept
In November, the automaker announced its Nissan Ambition 2030 plan, which targets 23 electric vehicle models for Nissan and Infiniti, including 15 all-electric vehicles, by 2030. It says by 2030 it intends for electric vehicle models – EVs and hybrids – to account for 50% of global sales by 2030.
That plan will be realized through an investment of about $17.6 billion over five years. Nikkei claims that the annual gas engine R&D budget of $4.3 billion could be redirected to electric vehicles and related technology. It’s unclear if that amount was included in the recent investment or if it was an addition.
From a presentation last month, the plan extends to what it means across the Alliance companies of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi, which will see investments of more than $26 billion (€23 billion) over the next five years. — leading to 35 new electric vehicles by 2030.
Nissan’s CMF-EV Platform, with CEO Makoto Uchida
About 90% of these models will be built on five common platforms — including the CMF-EV platform that underpins Nissan Ariyaand a new CMF-BEV platform, due to the platform of Renault 5 and a successor to the Nissan Micra, which Renault CEO Luca de Meo said would be “the key to democratizing electric cars”. It will have more than 60% of the components ported from the CMF-B platform that underpins compact Euro-sized ICE models.
Prototype Renault 5
Working together, including telecommunications and underpinning software, will culminate in the launch of what the companies call “the first complete software-defined vehicle” in 2025 – a vehicles that, the company says, could open up “new areas of value for Alliance companies.”
At the time, Nissan added more detail in its vision of how it would work with alliance members Renault and Mitsubishi. Under the agreement, Nissan will lead the development of solid-state battery technology to benefit other members, while Renault will lead the development of a “common centralized electrical and electronic architecture”.
Nissan aims to mass-produce solid-state battery technology by 2028, which will provide twice the battery energy density of current lithium-ion batteries, with charging times reduced to one-third compared with the current lithium-ion batteries. The present time. Nissan, with the Alliance as a whole, is aiming to cut battery costs by 50% by 2026 and 65% by 2028. Additionally, it hopes to cost batteries under $65/kwh, on a package basis. , which they consider to be the number necessary to cost equivalence with internal combustion.
Nissan Chill-Out concept – December 2021
Altogether, the Alliance partners plan to secure 230 GWh of global battery production capacity by 2030 – enough to generate several million EVs per year. In 2019, the Alliance sold about 10 million vehicles, so it will make room for a significant amount of gasoline-powered models to continue at that point.
The answer can also lie, to some extent, technically. Nissan could stop developing internal combustion engines but still buy them from Mitsubishi; or it can keep building them as long as they are compliant. Mitsubishi has said that it targets 50% or more of its global sales to be electrified – so hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles come together.
2023 Nissan Z
Market dynamics, whether it’s in the US, in Europe or elsewhere, can be the driving factor. Nikkei citing LMC Automotive data showing that global electric vehicle sales are expected to grow tenfold within 12 years, with sales expected to surpass gasoline-powered models by 20%. in 2033. With the reception of Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightningit’s easy to imagine that by then, even in the United States, mass-market, gasoline-powered pickups might be entering the sunset on their own.
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