As much as 20% of its vehicle sales in the European market will be of electric vehicles by the year 2020, according to Nissan’s Europe EV division chief, Gareth Dunsmore.
So, 20% by 2020. Well, that’s the statement that was made by Dunsmore anyways. Could Nissan actually achieve this goal? Does the company have secret plans in the works for new, compelling, electric vehicles (EVs) to hit the market in the near future? How could the company’s expectations stated above be achieved without better EVs than what’s on offer now?
Hard questions to answer …. The current iteration of the Nissan LEAF is just not that compelling anymore (at its current price point anyways). With a great many companies slated to begin releasing compelling long-range EVs over the next few years (Tesla, GM, Hyundai, etc), how will Nissan hit “20% by 2020”?
“Electric vehicles such as the Leaf and e-NV200 currently account for 6% of Nissan’s European sales, and Dunsmore pointed to the EV-friendly confines of Norway as an example of how plug-in vehicle adoption can spike with the right incentives. Stricter greenhouse-gas emissions targets and longer single-charge range slated for the end of the decade may also help convince buyers to ditch their gas- or diesel-powered cars and go electric,” Autoblog writes.
“Of course, France isn’t Norway, and neither is the US, where sales trends for the Leaf don’t suggest that a spike in Nissan’s EV sales will happen anytime soon unless the model receives a significant update. Through May, Nissan Leaf sales have fallen 39% this year to about 4,700 units. For May alone, sales plunged 53% from 2015 to just 979 vehicles. And as of late March, the Nissan Leaf’s European sales had dropped about 48% from a year earlier, according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO) website.”
The company certainly seems to be losing its position at the front of the EV pack.