TOKYO, Nov. 29 (BNA) – Nissan Motor Co. has announced that it will spend 2 trillion yen ($17.59 billion) over the next five years to speed up electrification of vehicles, betting tighter limits on carbon emissions will spur demand for electric and hybrid vehicles.
3 Japanese automaker said Monday it will introduce 23 electric vehicles by 2030, including 15 electric vehicles (EVs), and plans to introduce all solid-state batteries by March 2029.
Nissan, which was one of the first mass-market electric car makers with its Leaf model, aims to gain market share with its deeper drive toward electrified vehicles and fend off competitors, including new entrants such as Tesla Inc.
Its renewed commitment to battery-powered vehicles comes as consumer demand for these vehicles grows in key auto markets such as China and the United States.
CEO Makoto Uchida said Nissan aims to make electric vehicles more accessible to more drivers.
“We will advance our efforts to democratize electrification,” he said in an online presentation.
Nissan shares fell 4.9% in morning trading in Tokyo, lagging the performance of its main competitors.
Although only a small portion of vehicles are on the road, global electric vehicle registrations in 2020 grew 41% even as the overall auto market shrank by about a sixth, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Reuters reported.
However, Nissan has not committed to abandoning fossil fuel vehicles.
At the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow this month, major automakers, including General Motors and Ford Motor, signed a declaration committing them to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2040.
As it prepares to compete with growing demand for electric vehicles, Nissan in July pledged $1.4 billion with its Chinese partner Envision AESC to build a giant battery plant in Britain that would power 100,000 cars a year including a new crossover model.
CEO Uchida said Nissan will make electric cars affordable by cutting lithium-ion battery costs by 65% within eight years.
Competitors, including Toyota Motor Corp., which also refused to sign the Glasgow pledge, are also increasing its battery capacity.
The world’s largest automaker by volume plans to have 15 battery electric vehicles (BEV) models globally by 2025 and will spend $13.5 billion by 2030 to develop cheaper, more powerful electric batteries and its supply system.
Toyota said it aims to introduce solid state batteries by mid-2020.
These power packs are a potential game-changer for automakers because they are more energy-dense and less prone to ignition than liquid lithium-ion power packs. However, it is prone to cracking and is currently more expensive to produce.
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