Carlos Tavares, Nissan's executive vice-president for product planning and design, claims that the Nissan electric vehicle will have "pricing similar to a conventional car", but this pricing will not include the cost of the battery. Despite the seemingly strange system, Tavares emphasized that there would be "no additional inconvenience" for purchasers, as they would simply "buy the car, sign the battery lease" and then drive away.
The exact details of how the lease would operate and the costs involved are still uncertain, but Tavares reassured reporters that in the end the consumer would come out on top compared to if they had purchased a standard petrol car.
While discussion of Nissan's upcoming electric vehicle was the main focus of Tavares talk, he also mentioned that the age of the electric car was now upon us, and that "our grandchildren may never believe we owned cars, not to mention that they had tailpipes."
He also predicted that future generations may give up car ownership altogether, instead opting to access a garage of shared vehicles for an annual or monthly fee, similar to the way that many supercar clubs work today. The benefits of this, he said, would mean that consumers could have access to a number of different vehicles, depending on what they required for any particular situation, such as an SUV for country driving or a van for carrying cargo.
Reader Comments
Fri Nov 14 2008 11:44 AM
JSH says
No thanks Nissan. After your last round of EV vehicles I can't trust that you will support a vehicle that requires a leased battery. You sell me the whole car, no strings attached, or no sale.
Why? Though GM is the most famous EV crusher, other manufacturers also recalled their leased vehicle and crushed them including Nissan. Only Toyota and Ford gave in to pressure and continue to allow their EV's to be sold to private individuals and continue on the road today.
Here is Nissan's Hypermini EV that they recalled:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermini
What's to keep Nissan from recalling their leased batteries and leaving me with a useless shell of a vehicle if they succeed in overturning the current CARB ZEV mandate? What? You didn't know that California still had a ZEV mandate? That's right, it wasn't completely killed back in 2001 it was just postponed for a decade. From 2012 to 2014 the new mandate calls for OEM's to do one of the following:
Produce 5300 fuel cell cars
Produce 12,500 EV's with 100 mile range plus 66,000 PHEV's
Produce 25,000 Ev's with 100 mile range
http://www.eemsonline.co.uk/news/31-03-08_7
Fri Nov 14 2008 5:54 PM
mburleigh8 says
Leasing a battery, no thank you.
Leave a Comment
Login or register to leave comments.
Please keep your comments on topic. Your involvement is governed by our Privacy Policy and Terms.