Ghosn Lays Out Nissan’s Electric-Car Strategy

At a roundtable media dinner in Tokyo, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn fleshed out the company's strategy regarding zero-emission vehicles. The short of it is that battery electric vehicles (EVs) will dominate Nissan's efforts in the immediate term, with fuel cell vehicles "five to ten years down the road."   Ghosn's aggressive plans for battery EVs are rooted in the goal of converting 10 percent of the global car market to EV by 2020. He cited three primary reasons for pursuing zero-emission vehicles: national security, the instability of future oil prices and that EVs already have consumer demand. In addressing the limited range of battery EVs, Ghosn reckons that "95 percent of people on Earth [drive] less than 100 km per day," and that in Japan, "80 percent of people do less than 50 km per day.   Infrastructure, charge times and costs? "Really not a problem. It's the most available energy in the world." A 200-volt "slow charge" system for households

is $500 today at a per-charge cost about two to three Euro. Quick-charge stations "in the present state of the technology" can recharge batteries to 80 percent of full charge in 30 minutes (or 50 percent in 15 minutes) would cost around $30,000, a cost that can be shared by neighborhoods or apartment buildings. A 15-minute "quick drop" battery-swapping station is another, more expensive, option he identified. Ghosn also alluded to using the car batteries to store energy from the grid as a way of defraying costs while a car is parked. Nissan is pursuing a full product lineup, showing four cars in Frankfurt. Ghosn is embracing battery technology as a core competency and is open to selling the battery technology "to whoever is interested. The battery is going to be an essential piece of technology for our century. It's a long-term investment." Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor

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Ghosn Lays Out Nissan’s Electric-Car Strategy