Nissan launching China-only budget EV

Nissan plans to release an electric car for the Chinese market, priced 30% cheaper than existing models.

It’s launch will be timed to with a national campaign aimed at increasing the number of eco-friendly vehicles on the road.

Nissan currently sells the Venucia e30, an updated version of Leaf via its Dongfeng Motor Group joint venture Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company.

It plans to build the new car locally and source as many key parts as it can from within China. Its full price is said to be around 200,000 yuan (NZ$43,0000)

Cutting down transport costs is one strategy that the Japanese manufacturer will employ to bring the price of the car down far enough to compete with local EV competition.

With central and regional government subsidies, the new car could cost as little as 100,000-150,000 yuan. Around 330,000 electric and hybrid vehicles were sold in China in 2015, but the government is pushing for two million by 2020.

Nissan is gearing up to take a large slice of this although it only and has roughly 2% of the local market. It wants to increase this share to between 5%-10% with the new car in the next few years.