Nissan Motor is heading to China with new plans for electric vehicles. The president of the car company's China division, Yasuaki Hashimoto, said at the Guangzhou International Auto Show that the company will start selling electric cars in the country by 2012, according to Bloomberg. Nissan, though always having been comparatively behind in hybrid technology, has consistently been on the heels of the front runners and with this new development looks poised like a late breaking Derby horse to make things a little interesting if not neck and neck.
In 2000, Nissan rolled out its Tino Hybrid car in Japan and only the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight beat it to market. Nissan's Tino full-hybrid car sported a 100-hp gasoline engine, two electric motors, a lithium-ion battery pack and regenerative braking features. The Tino Hybrid increased fuel efficiency by 50-percent while decreasing pollutants by 50-percent over the standard Tino. In addition to the Tino, Nissan has since been building their 158-hp 2.5-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine and 40-hp electric assist motor Altima hybrid cars at their Smyrna, Tennessee plant, which has the capacity of building up to 50,000 vehicles.
The Chinese government is hoping to push more environmentally friendly cars like the Altima into the country by cutting taxes on fuel-efficient vehicles and plans to support domestic research in greener cars. As a result, Yasuaki Hashimoto said that China is one of the most important markets for electric cars. And from the looks of things the words "most important" may be a smoggy understatement.
GM and Toyota have already established a footing in the Chinese hybrid market but have had a less than stellar success selling vehicles. Chinese drivers have out and out shunned hybrids so far, with Toyota Prius, the bestselling model in China, racking up 616 sales nationwide in the first nine months of the year.
That's 616 out of the estimated 27 million cars on the road in China today ---you do the math.
Despite extremely low hybrid sales numbers, Nissan looks ready to meet the challenge in China having already boosted sales on the fuel-efficient Teana sedans and Tiida compacts 23 percent in the first 10 months and established significant electric vehicle deals with its French partner Renault in Israel, Denmark and Australia, Portugal, and France.
In addition, Nissan unveiled in August an all-electric prototype based on its Cube model. At the time the company said the production version will have a unique bodystyle and won't be based on any existing Nissan models. Renault also showed off its electric concept car in October, based on the Renault Kangoo. The battery packs for the planned Renault-Nissan electric cars will come from Automotive Energy Supply, a joint venture between Nissan and NEC. The cars are expected to hit the road in Israel and Denmark in 2011 and Australia the following year.
Photo by Flickr user Chris Motes
