Electric cars gearing up for the main roads

Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, is not keen to be drawn on targets for electric car sales. A 2011 prediction of 1.5 million Renault-Nissan electric vehicles by 2016 turned out to be wildly optimistic. The group just passed the 250,000 mark.

Ghosn was not alone. US President Barack Obama predicted 1 million electric cars in the US by 2015: in January the total was 280,000. Virgin boss Richard Branson said this week that “no new road cars will be petrol driven” within 20 years.

Unlike Branson, Ghosn does not want to stick his neck out. But as head of the companies which sell more than half the electric cars in the world, what Ghosn thinks about how fast the market will grow matters.

Transport contributes 23% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so the fundamental driver will be the ambition of the world in tackling climate change, Ghosn told The Guardian. “When we know exactly where the EU, US, China will be heading in 2030, I can tell you exactly how much electric cars will be needed,” he says, referring to a crunch UN summit in Paris in November. The reasons for people being relatively slow to buy electric cars are simple, Ghosn says: “If there is a price penalty or range anxiety, they just don’t buy.”

He says Renault-Nissan are working on cutting the cost of the cars, which comes down to volume, with electric cars currently making up a tiny proportion of the 85 million new cars sold globally each year. Government subsidies are also key as is the building of a network of charging points.

Ghosn is also president of ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers association, which has been criticised for lobbying to weaken EU fuel efficiency targets, a charge that he robustly rejects: “If you are worried about the total CO2, there is an obvious solution. It is to stop the old cars.” But he says emissions limits will also be important in accelerating electric car sales.

Ghosn was in London for the finale of the first FIA Formula E all-electric race series, in which Renault took the team title and was pipped in the final laps for the drivers’ championship by Nelson Piquet Jr from the China Racing team. Ghosn says the races, on city centre circuits, have helped solve the image problem of electric cars.

“Ten years ago people thought that electric cars would never make it. Now they see the [Renault] Zoe, the [Nissan] Leaf, the Teslas and Formula E, and they think electric cars can be fun and powerful. The idea that electric cars are normal cars, which is a big revolution, has taken place,” he says.

Ghosn raised the prospect of Renault, a major player in Formula One, exiting the high-octane race series as it increases its involvement in the nascent Formula E series. He also delivered a barely-disguised barb at the F1 Red Bull team boss, Christian Horner, who has criticised the Renault engines it uses. In F1, Ghosn says, “you have the honour to be forgotten when you win and highlighted when you lose.”

Renault hope that electric racing will deliver technology benefits to its road cars, and as Patrice Ratti, head of Renault Sport and Technology, predicts, it may take a few years, “maybe five to 10”.