Nissan will launch a range of hybrid models to supplement the fully electric Leaf and the showroom version of the IMx Kuro electric SUV as part of its electrification plans.
The company has yet to provide details of which models will be hybridised and when, but conventional hybrids and plug-ins will be offered.
Advanced product planning manager Warwick Daly said: “The [Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi] alliance is evaluating the best technologies available across the group for its hybrid programme” before revealing more about its strategy.
Considerable hybrid expertise rests with new alliance member Mitsubishi, and Nissan and Renault have more than eight years’ experience apiece at making and selling pure electric vehicles.
Daly said “not over-complicating” Nissan’s model line-up is a consideration.
The addition of hybrids and plug-in hybrids will expand the brand’s powertrain choice from three today (petrol, diesel and electric) to five.
Day expects around 35% of Nissan’s European sales to be electrified by 2025. The company is aiming for 20% of its sales to be plug-ins by 2020.
“We want to stay ahead of the curve,” said Daly. From 2025 onwards, Daly also expects that “the mild hybrid will start to become obsolete. Our electrification offer will change over time”. Daly expects the Leaf and electric SUV to become major sellers for the brand, alongside the Qashqai and Juke. “The Leaf will play a bigger role,” he said, pointing out that the latest version has 20,000 advance orders across Europe and the sales rate is 40% higher than for the previous model.
Nissan will have similar class-leading sales ambitions for the electric SUV, to maintain its position “as the number one crossover brand in Europe”, said Daly.
Comment by Rachel Burgess: Nissan needs to act fast
Nissan can probably lay claim to having had the earliest impact in the growth of EVs with its Leaf. But we’ve been so busy focusing on that – and the success of the Nissan Qashqai and Nissan Juke – that, suddenly, Nissan risks falling behind its rivals with electrified progress. The electric IMx and hybrids must arrive soon or Nissan will be forgotten as a pioneer and remembered for losing its advantage.
Read more
Join the debate
Add your comment
About time. Some Nissan
About time. Some Nissan models are lagging in engine development with them having to hold down power outputs to keep CO2 levels tolerable to the market, when you compare what you can have in a Qashqai with what you can have in something like an X1.