Among all the automobile manufacturers of the world, Nissan has been one of the quickest to adapt to the future, with mainstream electric cars dotting its lineup along with hybrids and PHEVs. Now the company plans to up its EV game and achieve a rather ambitious sales target of a million EVs per year by 2022.
Nissan has been at the forefront of the electric car revolution for quite some time. With the Leaf being the bestselling electric car in history and the second generation 2018 Leaf looking aesthetically a much better design than the outgoing one, Nissan deserves to pat itself on the back for achieving sustained healthy sales throughout the EV's life cycle. Instead, the company is expanding operations in the electric department and wants to sell a million electrified vehicles (including all-electric and plug-in hybrids) a year by the year 2022.
The rather ambitious goal is part of Nissan's new business plan, coined "M.O.V.E. To 2022", under which the Japanese automaker is going to launch eight new all-electric models through to 2022. There will be an electric Kei car specific to the Japanese market, as also a production model based on the IMx crossover concept, which was showcased at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show among the eight promised cars. The company is also preparing for a product offensive in China, with country-specific models developed in conjunction with Chinese firms.
Infiniti, Nissan's premium and luxury automobiles arm, is also part of the company's ambitious electrification drive. Nissan had previously stated that all Infiniti models will get all-electric or hybrid powertrains as an option beginning 2021. The luxury automaker will add two EVs to its lineup in 2022, targeting half its global sales raked in by electric cars and hybrids by the year 2025.
Alongside the electric cars, Nissan is also looking at underpinning more of its models by the e-Power hybrid powertrain, which uses a small petrol engine that acts as a generator, while the electric motor is the sole mode of propulsion. This powertrain is currently in use on the Nissan Note and Serena in Japan. Nissan also owns Mitsubishi now, so it will be interesting if it will bring in Mitsy's expertise in building PHEVs to weigh in on the development of its own plug-in models.
Autonomous mobility, though not immediate, is eventually going to take over the automobile industry. Nissan aims to stay abreast of the trend and is looking to offer its ProPilot driver-assist system to twenty models in twenty different markets by 2022. Again, the chosen target is a million ProPilot-equipped vehicles sold a year by 2022. While the ProPilot is a pretty advanced system, it is a driving assist and not the replacement. Autonomous cars are still some time away, and Nissan also does not have a clear timeline for the launch of its own fully autonomous car.
