New Nissan Leaf gets longer range
CHIBA, JAPAN: Nissan Motor Co Ltd launched a revamped Leaf electric vehicle (EV) yesterday, going head-to-head with Tesla Inc’s Model 3 and hoping to blunt criticism of limited driving ranges undermining EVs’ mass-market appeal.
Nissan said it aimed to “double, even triple” annual sales of the previous incarnation, jump-starting demand in major markets such as the United States, and packing new technologies to make up for a shorter driving range than rival offerings.
“If it’s successful, the Leaf will be a major part of the portfolio of Nissan,” chief executive officer Hiroto Saikawa said at a launch for the new version of the world’s best-selling battery-powered car. “EVs will no longer be a niche product.”
The car, on sale in Japan from Oct 2 and elsewhere in early 2018, can run for 150 miles (240 kilometres) on a single charge according to US regulator estimates, up from its predecessor’s 107 miles (171 kilometres) due to a bigger, 40 kilowatt hour (kWh) battery.
Prices in Japan will start from 3.15 million yen ($28,992).
The launch comes after luxury electric car maker Tesla made its first foray into the Leaf’s more affordable price band in July with its $35,000, 220-mile Model 3.
Tesla has said it has received half a million orders for the Model 3, indicating the challenge Nissan has in preserving the Leaf’s number-one rank.
Nissan, whose first Leaf was among the first mass-market EVs, has given its marquee model a sporty facelift drawing on its more mainstream designs including the Micra and Rogue, in an effort to dispel the image of EVs being only for the affluent and environment-conscious.
The mid-sized car comes equipped with Nissan’s latest automated functions including single-lane highway driving and self-parking, along with its combined accelerate and brake “e-pedal”.
“The pricing is flat, (yet) we have a full model change... You have autonomous drive technology, a new battery, new powertrain. How can this be unattractive to a young customer?” said Ivan Espinosa, vice president of global product planning.
But for all the improvements, analysts say current EV driving ranges are too short to lure a meaningful number of drivers away from conventional cars, particularly in the US where gasoline prices are historically low.
“Until we see a significant improvement in range and/or economics that feed through to a rise in gasoline prices, EV buyers will be buying for environmental or altruistic reasons,” said Janet Lewis, head of Asia transportation research at Macquarie Securities. “It’s still a very, very niche market.”
Industry experts said a range over 250 miles and price around $30,000 would be needed to see a significant shift to massmarket EVs.
Worldwide EV registrations numbered just two million as of 2016, showed data from the International Energy Agency. That compared with the 80 million noncommercial vehicles sold last year alone. To date, Nissan has sold 280,000 Leafs. Saikawa said a longer-range Leaf for launch next year would carry a bigger, 60 kWh battery, yielding a range of roughly “more than 300 miles”, without specifying which standards Nissan used for the estimate.
The Leaf will continue to use lithiumion batteries from Automotive Energy Supply Corp, which Nissan began as a joint venture with NEC Corp and sold to Chinese investor GSR Capital last month.