Nissan will spend $ 17.6 billion in 5 years on the electrification push for Reuters

Author: Tim Kelly

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan (OTC 🙂 Motor Co. has announced it will spend 2 trillion yen ($ 17.59 billion) to accelerate the electrification of vehicles over the next five years, with the aim of reaching rivals in one of the fastest growing automotive industries. .

This is the first time that Japan’s 3rd automaker, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of mass-market electric vehicles (EVs), has been introducing a comprehensive electrification plan for more than a decade with its Leaf model.

Nissan will spend twice as much as in the previous 10 years as a rival to the market share of electric vehicles, among other things. Toyota New entrants like Motor (NYSE 🙂 Corp and Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc are moving forward with electric car plans.

Nissan said on Monday that it will introduce 23 electric vehicles by 2030, including 15 electric vehicles (EVs), and plans to reduce its lithium-ion battery costs by 65% ​​within eight years. In addition, all solid state batteries that are expected to change games are expected to be introduced by March 2029.

These commitments, CEO Makoto Uchida said, would make electric vehicles available to more drivers.

“We will advance the effort to democratize electrification,” he said in a network presentation.

Some analysts were not surprised by Nissan’s plan, noting that it was behind rivals in the electrification game.

Masayuki Otani, a senior analyst at Securities Japan Ltd, also said that car shares were falling on Monday due to market concerns about a new variant of coronavirus and the potential impact it could have.

having production plans.

“Nissan’s long-term vision comes at a time when the market may not be well received. It can be said that it represents high investment growth, it feels prudent,” he said.

Shares of Nissan were down 5.1% on Monday, underestimating their main rivals. Evening trade fell by 3.8%.

Graph: Nissan, shares of other automakers https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gdvzydxgjpw/image-1638151943316.png

Although still a small part of the vehicles on the road, global electric car registrations grew by 41% in 2020, although the overall car market shrank by almost a sixth, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

At the UN climate summit in Glasgow this month, major automakers, including General Motors (NYSE 🙂 and Ford Motor (NYSE 🙂 Co., signed a statement pledging to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2040.

Nissan, however, has not committed to abandoning gasoline vehicles. He said Monday that half of his vehicle mix will be electrified by 2030, including electric vehicles and their e-Power hybrids.

Ready to compete in growing demand for EVs, Nissan pledged $ 1.4 billion in July with its Chinese partner Envision AESC to build a giant battery plant in the UK that will power 100,000 vehicles a year, including a new crossover model.

Although rivals, including Toyota, refused to sign the Glasgow commitment, they are increasing battery production.

In terms of production volume, the world’s largest automaker expects to have 15 electric vehicle (BEV) models worldwide by 2025 and will spend $ 13.5 trillion by 2030 to develop cheaper and more powerful EV batteries and their supply system.

Toyota said it aims to introduce solid-state batteries by the mid-2020s.

These power packs are attractive to automakers because they have denser energy packs than liquid lithium-ion power packs and are less likely to catch fire. However, they tend to crack and are more expensive to produce today.

Nissan said its goal is to lower the cost of solid-state batteries to $ 75 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2028 and further reduce them to $ 65 per kWh in the future to make them more competitive with gasoline vehicles.

($ 1 = 113,7000 yen)