Nissan: Electric cars could shed government aid in four years

May 27, 2010 12:03 AM PDT

by Reuters

Nissan Motor and alliance partner Renault could market electric vehicles without government incentives within four years as global sales reach 500,000 to 1 million vehicles per year, executives said on Wednesday.

Nissan, which is introducing a mass-market Leaf electric car later this year, needs government incentives to spark initial demand but understands those incentives will not be permanent, Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) "You need to jump-start electric cars at a certain level so that we can get scale, and the scale will allow us to reduce costs," Ghosn told reporters after a groundbreaking at a plant in Tennessee that will produce the Leaf and its battery.

"We think that scale for us is between 500,000 and 1 million cars a year," he said. "When you get between 500,000 and 1 million cars per year, we don't need government support."

Nissan-Renault could have as many as eight electric vehicles between them within a few years, allowing the companies to reach the scale that would make the government incentives unnecessary, executives said.

"We believe we will need two to four years of incentives and supports to reach the level of volume that will free up the cost reductions that we need to implement," said Carlos Tavares, Nissan's chief of the Americas.

Tavares expects the cost of batteries used in the Leaf and other electric vehicles to come down sharply within four years for Nissan and Renault.

Nissan broke ground on a $1.7 billion project to expand its assembly plant in Smyrna and build an adjacent lithium-ion battery plant that will be one of the biggest in North America. The facilities are expected to create 1,300 jobs.

Tavares said Nissan has an edge in battery development by being first in the industry to introduce a mass-market electric vehicle in late 2010 in Japan, the United States, and Europe.

The first Leaf vehicles and their lithium-ion batteries are being built in Japan.

When it is fully functioning, the Smyrna plant will be able to produce 150,000 Leaf electric cars per year. The new battery plant will have the capacity to produce 200,000 battery packs.

Nissan has not said yet whether the additional battery capacity would be used for a different electric vehicle within the Nissan or Renault family. Nissan has said it would be open to selling the batteries to other automakers.

The Nissan plant investment was supported with $1.4 billion of U.S. Energy Department loans.

Nissan started taking orders for the Leaf in April. It had about 13,000 fully refundable orders in the United States as of Tuesday and 6,000 in Japan.

"We have enough capacity to start the mass marketing of electric cars, but if we see when December comes that the hand-raising and pre-orderings transform fully to sales, we are going to have to make a decision about adding additional capacity," Ghosn said.

GE, Nissan team on smart charging for electric cars

April 26, 2010 7:34 AM PDT

by Martin LaMonica

General Electric and Nissan plan to research "smart charging" technologies for electric vehicles to help consumers take advantage of cheaper electricity rates and keep the power grid stable.

The two companies on Monday announced a memorandum of understand to undertake research mainly at GE's Niskayuna, New York smart-grid lab for three years. The first phase of the work will focus on integrating electric car charging with homes and buildings. The second phase will work on integrating electric vehicles in the power grid, according to the companies.

GE's Matt Nielsen is the lead researcher for the smart charging work at GE's research lab in upstate New York.

(Credit: GE) "Together with Nissan, we will take a comprehensive look at what technologies will be needed in the car, on the grid and at home or work to make smart charging a reality," said Mark Little, the president and director of GE Global Research, in a statement.

Nissan last week began taking orders for the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric sedan that can go about 100 miles. It plans to start delivery of the car in the U.S. and Japan by the end of the year.

As these plug-in vehicles come to market, though, people in the auto and utility industries say there still are a few issues that need to be cleared up to make the transition smooth for car owners.

In a blog post, GE scientist Matt Nielsen, who is taking the lead on the smart charging research, said that GE and Nissan will seek to sort out which challenges are real and which are perceived by using computer simulations and gathering data.

Among the challenges he sees are equipping homes with the appropriate wiring for car charging, administering low-cost metering plans from utilities, and managing car cables so people don't trip over them.

In addition to providing convenience for drivers, smart charging software is considered a critical piece of infrastructure as more electric cars are plugged in. If a neighborhood has only a few electric vehicles charging at the same time, it could strain or take down a local circuit, according to utility executives.

"Initially the small numbers of electric vehicles will not strain the grid. However, I would argue that providing a good customer experience will be critical for these early adopters. In today's social-media connected environment, the communication of their perception may impact the overall adoption curve," Nielsen said.

To avoid taxing the grid, smart-charging equipment could monitor the rate that car batteries are charged or schedule charging for off-peak times. Consumers could also program their daily charging to take advantage of off-peak rates, if they are available. Or, there could be tools to check the charge status and estimate the charge needed for a planned driving route.

Ford and Microsoft earlier this month said Ford electric vehicle drivers will use car-charging tools in Microsoft's Hohm home energy-management Web application. The Pacific Northwest National Labs has developed a smart charger controller, a device that can get data on charge rates from the Internet while making sure a car is fully charged when needed.

Utility and electric vehicles company executives are also exploring ways for plug-in vehicle batteries to provide services for the power grid. A network of plugged-in vehicles electric cars could help stabilize the grid's frequency and reduce the need for power plants used for that purpose. Electric vehicles could also send their charge back into the grid, although that technology is considered more challenging.

Comment

Nissan is also working with Better Place to make electric vehicles and the infrastructure to recharge them.

Survey: Consumers intrigued by electric cars

March 19, 2010 8:53 AM PDT

by Martin LaMonica

Despite few options, about one quarter of U.S. consumers surveyed said they are likely to consider a plug-in vehicle on their next auto purchase, according to the Consumer Reports National Survey Center.

Consumer Reports on Thursday published the results of the survey that asked 1,752 adults about their views regarding plug-in electric vehicles. In random phone interviews, 26 percent of people said they are likely to consider a plug-in car when shopping, with 7 percent saying they are very likely to do so.

Electric cars and concepts at the 2010 Detroit auto show (photos)

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The survey indicated that consumers were not willing to give up much on performance or convenience to use the new technology, according to consumer reports.

Driving range is perhaps the biggest barrier to adoption of all-electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, which is expected to go on sale in the U.S. later this year. In tests in the U.S., the driving range of the electric Mini-E is between 75 miles and 100 miles, which varies with weather and driving habits, according to BMW.

But there was a range of sentiment on the question of driving range. The median range that consumers said they wanted from an electric car was 89 miles. But, 45 percent said that they would be satisfied with a driving range of under 75 miles and 29 percent said that under 49 miles would be fine.

On the question of price, there's a range as well. The median extra amount consumers said they would pay for electric was $2,068, but 20 percent said they are not willing to pay anything more, and another 20 percent saying they would pay at least $5,000 extra.

One could interpret the top-line result in a different way: a majority of respondents--nearly three quarters--said they don't expect to consider a plug-in electric car for their next purchase.

However, there have been other studies that indicate that consumers are interested in electric vehicles in their different forms because they have the potential to save drivers money on fuel and pollute less than gas-only vehicles.

Because of differences in driving range needs and availability of public charging stations, the roll out of plug-in cars is likely to happen in certain regional clusters, say experts