Nissan targets 550km electric car by 2020

CleanTechnica

Driving a Nissan LEAF as a city car with short jaunts out of town is fine, I never lack range or charge for such uses, even without home charging

But what if you want to drive the Appalachians or roam a UNESCO world heritage site — for hours? Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa recently talked about a 300 mile target for 3 years from now, saying, “It’s a usable range, 300 miles. I believe that the technology will lead us there.” Yes, one can do a lot of roaming without potential “range anxiety” with 300 miles of range.

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Kazuo Yajima, Renault-Nissan Alliance Global Director of EV & HEV technology, believes the future for cars will be pure electric vehicles — not plug-in hybrids. Certainly, if the charging infrastructure continues to increase (and becomes available practically everywhere) and electric vehicle range doubles or triples, then pure EV sales will increase dramatically.

Survey results from our new EV report. Responses came from over 2,000 EV drivers across 26 European countries, 49 of 50 US states, and 9 Canadian provinces. Responses were segmented according to region — North America vs Europe — and type of electric car — plug-in hybrid vs Tesla vs non-Tesla fully electric car.
Survey results from our new EV report. Responses came from over 2,000 EV drivers across 26 European countries, 49 of 50 US states, and 9 Canadian provinces. Responses were segmented according to region — North America vs Europe — and type of electric car — plug-in hybrid vs Tesla vs non-Tesla fully electric car.

The big transition will burst by 2020 for Nissan. “We have developed a prototype vehicle that can run 550 km while keeping the cargo capacity with the same external dimension as the current LEAF,” says Yajima. Inside EVs adds: “That’s 342 miles (we assume using the optimistic Jc08, which would be more like 250 miles of real world/EPA range).

That range figure is achieved by using a new battery cell with increased energy density. Packaging of the cells is more dense too. This information comes after new CEO Hiroto Saikawa earlier talked in April about a 300 mile target for 3 years from now.

If you are interested in getting an electric Nissan sooner, CleanTechnica recently explained that the 2018 LEAF is expected to offer a significant improvement over the 2017 LEAF, but big discounts on the LEAF are still making it attractive.

Here’s more of what we’ve heard: “The refreshed Nissan LEAF is, in addition to a revamped appearance, expected to possess a much improved range and Nissan’s semi-autonomous ProPilot driving features — which will reportedly allow for fully autonomous single-lane highway travel.”

Whether buying today or tomorrow, as a 2015 LEAF driver, I’m sure a Nissan LEAF is almost always a satisfying choice. We assume that’s why so many current EV drivers plan to buy or lease a LEAF next.

Survey results from our new EV report. Responses came from over 2,000 EV drivers across 26 European countries, 49 of 50 US states, and 9 Canadian provinces. Responses were segmented according to region — North America vs Europe — and type of electric car — plug-in hybrid vs Tesla vs non-Tesla fully electric car.
Survey results from our new EV report. Responses came from over 2,000 EV drivers across 26 European countries, 49 of 50 US states, and 9 Canadian provinces. Responses were segmented according to region — North America vs Europe — and type of electric car — plug-in hybrid vs Tesla vs non-Tesla fully electric car.

Source: CleanTechnica. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

5 responses to “Nissan targets 550km electric car by 2020”

  1. Terry J Wall Avatar
    Terry J Wall

    I have had two serious attempts to contact Nissan Australia about buying a LEAF and to date: it has been one big FAT zippo. Hope to hell Nissan Japan reads this.

    1. trackdaze Avatar
      trackdaze

      A phone call needs to be followed up by an email and a reminder email.

      Then your set for contact.

      Are they listed for sale in australia?

    2. Coley Avatar
      Coley

      Posted about this problem 2 years ago, even had the manager of Nissan EV (UK) on the case.
      Did I get the promised test drive? Did a sales representative call? Did any bugger from the various local Nissan dealers contact me?
      I’m still driving my trusty, reliable but fuel guzzling Vauxhall Zafira.
      What do you reckon!?

  2. Ben Davies Avatar
    Ben Davies

    I tried to contact Mitsubishi in Darwin about a PHEV Outlander. Response was “sorry we don’t sell them anymore – unsuited for the Australian Market”. There were three new on the carsales website for sale in Darwin at the time.

  3. Michael Fry Avatar
    Michael Fry

    This is all hype most like done on a climate alarmist prediction model. If only they realised excel spreadsheets only produce output based on input and if your input is BS so is the result.

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