The FINANCIAL — Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. on March 23 unveiled plans to launch growing numbers of electrified vehicles, expand and evolve autonomous driving systems, and accelerate vehicle connectivity as part of its Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022 midterm plan.
Among the targets, Nissan is aiming to sell 1 million electrified vehicles – either pure electric models or those with e-POWER powertrains – annually by fiscal year 2022, according to Nissan.
As part of Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, the company also intends to:
Develop eight new pure electric vehicles, building on the success of the new Nissan LEAF;
Launch an electric car offensive in China under different brands;
Introduce an electric “kei” mini-vehicle in Japan;
Offer a global crossover electric vehicle, inspired by the Nissan IMx Concept;
Electrify new INFINITI models from fiscal year 2021;
Equip 20 models in 20 markets with autonomous driving technology; and,
Reach 100% connectivity for all new Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun cars sold in key markets by the end of the plan.
Philippe Klein, Nissan’s chief planning officer, said, “Our product and technology strategy is dedicated to positioning Nissan to lead the automotive, technology and business evolution. Our efforts are focused on delivering Nissan Intelligent Mobility, encompassing the three core elements of electrification, autonomous drive, connectivity and new mobility services.”
Speaking at a media briefing alongside senior vice presidents Takao Asami and Ogi Redzic, who lead the respective autonomous driving and connectivity projects at the Alliance, Klein reaffirmed that the midterm plan aims to boost annualized revenue by 30% to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal year 2022. The company is also targeting an 8% core operating profit margin and cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen.
Klein pledged to leverage the platform and powertrain assets of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi to support the company’s goals.
Electrification
As part of its electrification strategy, Klein said Nissan will launch a product offensive in China led by a new C-segment electric vehicle this year, derived from Nissan LEAF technology. The product offensive will also include an affordable EV in China through the Alliance joint venture eGT New Energy Automotive. This new affordable electric vehicle will be jointly developed by the Alliance and Dongfeng on an A-segment SUV platform.
Two further electric vehicle derivatives are also being prepared for the Venucia brand.
Nissan will also continue to expand its e-POWER technology, already offered on the Nissan Note and Nissan Serena in Japan. More than 129,000 Note e-POWER models were sold in Japan in its first year, with more than two-thirds of Note customers opting for e-POWER models versus the baseline model.
Nissan expects that electrified vehicles – including electric vehicles and e-POWER models – will make up 40% of the company’s sales in Japan and Europe by 2022 and 50% by 2025. In the U.S., the expectation is about 20-30% by 2025, while in China it’s 35-40%.
INFINITI will accelerate the electrification trend, with new models being either pure electric vehicles or utilizing e-POWER technology from fiscal year 2021. By 2025, INFINITI expects electrified vehicles to comprise 50% of its global sales.
Autonomous driving
As part of its strategy for autonomous driving systems, Nissan announced plans to deploy ProPILOT technology in 20 models in 20 markets by 2022. The company expects to sell 1 million ProPILOT-equipped vehicles a year by 2022.
This will be followed by enhancing ProPILOT to automate multilane driving on highways and managing vehicle destinations. The enhanced capability will be introduced in Japan as a pilot project within one year.
Asami said, “Based on Nissan’s history of providing world-first safety technologies, we continue to evolve autonomous technology towards hands-free, eyes-off convenience in all environments. Already we have more vehicles on the road with semi-autonomous capabilities than any other automaker, and we continue to learn from this experience to bring benefits to customers.”
Connectivity and mobility services
Redzic announced an objective to offer connectivity for 100% of new Nissan, INFINITI and Datsun cars sold in key markets, enabled by the launch of the Alliance Connected Cloud.
“The Alliance Connected Cloud will allow for all of the Alliance companies to integrate the data management of future, current and past connected vehicles – new models and those already on the road,” said Redzic. “It will support infotainment services, as well as a single communication mechanism to facilitate updates over the air for all vehicles.”
The Alliance Connected Cloud provides a foundation to enable the expansion of connected and mobility services for Nissan, including robo-vehicle ride-hailing services. Nissan tested its first robo-vehicle ride-hailing service called “Easy Ride” with partner DeNA earlier this month. By the early 2020s, Nissan aims to provide commercial services directly to customers.
