Nissan has announced that it will sell only electrified vehicles in China by 2035 and is taking active steps to meet China’s recently-announced plans to follow a similar “eco-friendly” vehicle model throughout mainland China as soon as 2035.
As part of its response, Nissan will announce 9 all-new or updated electrified cars between now and the 2025 model year.
Those new models are expected to include the next-generation LEAF (or LEAF-segment vehicle), a mid-sized sedan modeled after the Sylphy (called the Sentra in the US, and (of course) the new electric Ariya crossover that’s slated to begin reaching customers sometime next year.
A new Nissan assembly plants will begin operating in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, in 2020. Another factory in Wuhan, Hubei province, is expected to follow sometime next year.
It will likely take about 10 years for electric vehicles to be as profitable as gasoline-powered vehicles due to high battery costs so for the time being China is allowing promotion of hybrids, which have better profit margins; this will help them in achieving the policy goal of expanding cleaner vehicles for sustainable growth of transport system in China.
Reference- Reuters, Nikkei Asia, Clean Technica, Nissan website, Bloomberg