Chevy Volt knocked aside by "bullish" competitor Nissan
By Matt Jansen
Chevy has recognized the social demand for cleaner, more energy efficient vehicles and is racing to meet it with the Volt in 2010. But it won’t be the only contender in the space. Nissan is jumping into the market with a passion by announcing plans to release 3 electric vehicles of its own by 2010.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says that the electric car market is ” . . . a territory we want to own. We are bullish on zero-emission vehicles because of the social trend. The young generation is demanding this. The social trend will make electric vehicles more favorable, along with incentives and tax cuts,” according to AutoWeek.
Ghosn initially plans to target cities like New York, Washington, London, Paris and Mumbai, India where the trend is most prevalent, and it’s no coincidence that Nissan has targeted 2010, the same year the Chevy Volt is expected to debut.
Chevy may have a brief respite though, because Nissan will be working primarily with fleet vehicle owners until 2012, not mainstream consumers.
But Nissan is diversifying more than the Chevy Volt initiative by planning three cars in its electric lineup, “The electric vehicle is not just one car but a lineup . . . [including a] small car, passenger sedan, and LCV (light commercial vehicle)”.
Even though the Chevy Volt project is already on fire, news like this from competitors in the space should be a strong sign to Chevy that it needs to get the Volt right with a good mix of reliability and energy efficiency. Otherwise it will be swept aside by competitors eager to meet the demand of consumers looking for alternative sources of energy for transportation.
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Stumble It!
May 14th, 2008
I think the new A123 technology they are putting into the Volt is a great step in the right direction. We need more vendors to supply batteries and other components if we ever expect hybrids to be affordable.
Learn more about the volt at http://www.chevy-volt.net
May 14th, 2008
Matt Jensen obviously doesn’t know much about GM’s E-Flex platform, nor anything about the three or more models that will shortly follow the VOLT. This article is a piece of lazy journalism.
Nor is the simple EV_1 type limited capability EV that osn is putting out there any match for the long range, practical capabilities of the Volt and its siblings. The EV Ghosn is building was shown to be ipractical 15 years ago when it came out as an EV-1, Toyota Rav4 or Honda EV, all dreadful failures because of range limitations and excessive recharge times. Nissan is building a fleet of can’t-do vehicles that will give EVs a bad name all over again. Another blunder by Ghosn.
May 15th, 2008
Nissan will join Tesla, ZENN, ZAP, Phoenix and Think building EVs (Electric Vehicles) over the next 4 years. It’s unlikely anyone will produce enough volume to saturate the market anytime soon, so there’s plenty of room in the pool. It’s about danged time we started getting factory EVs. Perhaps Toyota will revive and rejuvenate it’s RAV4 EV with Li-ion batteries.
Plug-ins (PHEVs) are very desirable, and for many they’ll need that security for a while until EV charging stations are in every gas station. But PHEVs should be viewed as a step towards REVs (Range Extending Vehicles) and/or EVs.
Volt and PHEV Priuses can peacefully co-exist with Nissan EVs for at least another decade.