Affordability does not mean a low sticker price – Nissan EV chief

This story first appeared in the March issue of Evtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Nissan has big aspirations for its electric vehicle effort.

By 2022 it wants to have sold one million electrified vehicles worldwide, and is rolling out the models to get it there.

Between now and 2022 it will launch eight new pure electric models.

It has already been showing off its wares with the IMQ concept crossover displayed at Geneva, with more to come.

Leading its efforts is global electric vehicle director Nicholas Thomas, who EVtalk caught up with last week at Nissan’s Electric Futures think-tank in Hong Kong.

Thomas’s job of hitting the target has got off to a good start with the new Leaf we also drove during the event.

“We sold more than 100,000 of the new car in our three key regions of US, Europe and Japan,” Thomas says.

“But now it’s very exciting to be able to be launching it around the rest of the world.

Particularly here around Asia Pacific, where we see a great deal of interest in the car.”

That tally takes Nissan to 300,000 electric vehicles sold, most the successful first generation Leaf.

Thomas says the new model is important because of its range.

“It’s been really, really well received in terms of firstly the extra range we’re able to offer now.

Once you’ve crossed that kind of 150 miles, 280-kilometre barrier, that’s quite a psychological barrier.

It now means that for a lot of people you can do all of your week’s driving on a single charge.”

Nissan, he suggests, is at an advantage to other players in the electric vehicle market.

As many brands launch their first generation cars, Nissan is selling its second and developing its third.

“Which means our engineers firstly have resolved a lot of the quibbles, if you like, of the first product and the second generation product has really grown.”

Broader acceptance of electric vehicles and government pressure are also finally combining to assist the rollout of electric cars.

“And then you add the government pressure which is driving for, particularly in cities in Europe, China, California and Japan, driving for cleaner air in cities; trying to reduce air pollution and trying to take active measures to do that,” Thomas says.

“Zero emission cars are just about the most obvious way that a government can take action on those sorts of things.”

The much-fabled crossover point for battery cost is also approaching, Thomas says, though not merely from the technology getting cheaper.

Emissions regulation is raising the price of internal combustion powertrains up to meet batteries – especially in Europe.

“Batteries will come down to $100 per kilowatt hour, and the price of NOX and CO2 which is driving up the price of petrol and diesel engines will cross over,” he explains.

“It doesn’t automatically mean that the EV itself will be as cheap as the cheapest petrol car you can buy today, it’s still a big battery.

At the same time as the cost per kilowatt hour is coming down the demand for bigger batteries is going up.”

Thomas says a big challenge in his job is to convince buyers that affordable electric cars are not necessarily low priced.

The battery is essentially an asset that can be used for other things.

“Yes clearly sticker price is hugely important but when you look at different things we’re able to do.
With an EV, as long as you can get electrons into it, which are substantially cheaper than hydrocarbons, in most cases, then you’ve kind of paid for your fuel already because you’re paying for battery life.”

The battery can also be used in vehicle-to-grid or home setups, allowing the owner to generate via solar or wind cheap electricity and store it for times when demand and cost is high then dramatic savings can be made.

The battery could also be used by energy companies for load balancing, and the owner paid for offering this service.

“When there’s extra energy, when there’s solar being generated during the day, let’s put it into all of the EV’s.

“And then in the evening when there’s an excess of demand, when everybody turns on their AC, turns on their cookers, turns on their lights etc, there’s a big peak in demand, we can actually give a small amount of the energy in each battery back to the building or to the grid.And again, customers can get paid for that.

“So affordability is not just about how much does the car cost at the beginning, it’s about what are all the different things I can do with it during the life of the car.”

This technology is not necessarily cheap, though Nissan is working to bring the cost down.

It is working with third parties to offer such bi-directional charging units, and want to bring one to market later this year for as low as $3000.

This could then be packaged with the vehicle at sale as part of the finance or lease.

In Australia, it is working with Jet Charge on such units.

Utes a long way off

What is not likely to come soon is an electrified version of New Zealander’s favourite type of vehicle – the ute.

Thomas suggests the way such vehicles are used make them a challenge.

“Most people buy a car to use it fairly lightly and make the occasional long distance trip,” he explains.

“People use commercial vehicles to carry heavy loads, driver longer distances – they use them intensively.”

They are also – generally – low cost vehicles.

“Those are hard-working vehicles, and they are also very low-cost vehicles,” Thomas says.

“We’re not there with battery technology yet.

We need to wait for batteries to become more affordable.”

Cooling not required

When challenged by EVtalk, Thomas stands by Nissan’s decision not to fit the new generation Leaf with active cooling, despite it putting restrictions on frequent DC fast charging.

Cost and usage being the reasons behind Nissan going against the trend of other manufacturers.

“What we have found is, again, most customers buy the car to drive relatively short distances and perhaps occasionally want to do that longer journey where you’ve got 280 kilometres of range.

And then you have the ability to quick charge,” he says.

“You can still do 500km in a day quite comfortably – which is more than enough to cover 90-95% of all driving needs for pretty much every customer.”

“Battery cooling is not something that we feel we need,” he asserts.

“We have active thermal management to protect the battery.

We have provided an eight-year warranty.

We’re very comfortable and confident in the quality and durability of the battery.”

“Simply speaking it’s not a cost that most customers need us to add to their vehicle.”