Nissan’s only current production electric vehicle is the Leaf, a car with an oscillating sale past that, as of the start of this year, has seen good growth around the world, and particularly in the US. Now, since production for the North American market was moved to Smyrna, Tennessee, and the price has been dropped a bit, the trend is accelerated.
The numbers are the ones that confirm this, and there’s no denying the difference between the 11,703 Leafs sold through July of this year versus the 3,543 shifted in the same time frame of 2012. Remember that the Smyrna plant has the capacity to build 150,000 vehicles per year and around 200,000 lithium-ion battery packs, so the sole Nissan EV currently in production could spare some production line space for one of two possible new models announced by an Autonews Europe report.
The information comes from Carla Bailo, senior vice president for R&D at Nissan Americas, who confirmed a future range of five EVs for the Japanese carmaker. This means there will be two more than the originally planned range of three that was comprised of the Leaf, the electric NV200 van and Leaf-based Infiniti-badged model as the more luxurious option.
They have also postponed the latter so as to wait for inductive (wireless) charging technology to become better and more accessible – the plan is to roll it out across the entire electric range, yet the first model which is to get it is still the Infiniti.
Exactly what those two new models are, we cannot say, but Nissan may want its own interpretation on the Renault Twizy formula, which they have already previewed in concept form, or a practical MPV/minivan…
By Andrei Nedelea
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