Nissan bosses have refused to rule out the introduction of an electric version of the next-generation Nissan Dualis (Qashqai in EU)
According to Autocar Guillaume Cartier, Nissan's head of European sales and marketing says the Japanese automaker won't consider an electric-drive version of the model "for now," implying that there may be one in the future for Europe. He added that economies of scale are driving battery-electric powertrain production costs down, so Nissan is likely to expand the battery-electric option well beyond models such as the Leaf.
The Qashqai has been built at Nissan's UK plant in Sunderland since December 2006. Nissan started production of the LEAF at Sunderland in March of this year.
Cartier also said that Nissan's EV lineup will continue to grow, but EV technology will not be retro-fitted into existing models. New models will be designed with electric propulsion in mind from the outset.
Bloomberg reporter Matt Miller tries to make a case that BMW and Audi are going to squeeze out Tesla at the top-end of the market, but the analysis is fairly poor.
Miller's argument starts by comparing BMW's two seater plug-in hybrid i8 sports car to Tesla's seven seater 100% battery electric Model S 4 door sedan? These cars aren't even in the same market segment!
We're not even sure how Audi enters the competitive analysis as Audi admitted defeat and canned the R8 e-tron saying they couldn't figure out how to make a high performance battery only car economically viable and they have not announced any plans for a high performance battery only sedan to go up against the Model S.
This is the kind of trash reporting that listed companies must endure, commentators constantly trying to talk the stock price up or down. At least it's good to see a 'real' analyst like Dougherty & Co.'s Andrea James who actually knows what's she's talking about get some air time.
The recent Electric Vehicle Racing in Motor Sports Japan Festival saw some interesting EV race car demonstrations, some of which have made their way onto Youtube.
While the environmental benefits of converting tire rubber into smoke are debatable, what is of particular interest is the demonstration of the horsepower available in Monster Tajima's EV class winning Pikes Peak Special.
GKN EVO axial flux motors power all the leading Japanese Pikes Peak EV entries and we believe Tajima's Monster Sport E-RUNNER runs 2x AFM-240 Axial Flux motors, each capable of 335 kw (455 hp) and 1200 Nm Peak.
While we don't know what differential gearing the car runs front and back so are unable to calculate torque at the wheels, anyway you look at it, that's just over 900 horsepower shredding tires in this car park demo, which equals the 900 hp 900 kg Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak Special used by nine time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb to win overall.
When asked about beating the new gasoline record, the 63 year old Tajima responded: “We are able to do that very soon, it depends on the battery. With a high quality and high density battery, I can beat that record for sure.”
Europe's car fleets have been persistently transformed from being petrol-driven to diesel-driven over the last 20 years. The EU average for diesel new car sales is 55%, with Spain and France as high as 70%.
According to leading automotive engineers the dominance of diesel engines in Europe’s new car market could be over before the end of the decade. A combination of increasingly stringent emissions regulations and the high cost of new-generation anti-pollution technology will make diesel engines much more expensive along with the high possibility of significant rises in the price of diesel fuel making them more expensive to run.
Joe Bakaj, head of product development for Ford of Europe said “It is much cheaper to get petrol engines through EU6.2; with diesel engines we need technology such as selective catalyst reduction systems, and costs increase again with heavier vehicles.”
Will EVs fill the void? With the average cost of fuel across the EU approx € 1.50 / liter (US $8 /US Gallon), those prices have driven european motorists to sacrifice the performance of a petrol engine for sluggishness and jack-hammer sound track of a diesel engine in search of 10-20% fuel efficiency improvements.
Based on those motives, if a 10-20% fuel saving can generate 50-70% market share of new car sales, then the 95% energy cost saving of running a plug-in electric car has the potential to take over significantly more than 70% market share.
Nissan employees working at the company's Barcelona Technical Centre are proving there's more to motorsport than striving for the fastest lap times by taking part in a new concept in motorsport: ECOseries, which rewards efficiency and fuel economy rather than outright speed.
The employees - who are all taking part in the series in their spare time - are using three Nissan Leaf in the zero-emission category.
ECOseries, which is based in Spain and combines track and road-rally events over the season, attracts entries from a wide variety of road cars. Aside from the Nissan team, there are cars from rival manufacturers including Peugeot, Toyota, Volkswagen, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
In the EV category, the Nissan LEAFs and a Mercedes A-Class E-Cell have been fighting for outright honours. Although two of the team's three LEAFs are essentially standard, a third was introduced as a mobile test lab, running in the series' EV prototype category. For the final race, its battery pack was doubled in size to take battery performance to 48 kWh and allowing it to perform on more equal terms with the 36 kWh Mercedes.
In the end, although the LEAF was quicker than the A-Class and ran at the same pace as the Nissan Juke with no potential range issues to affect the car's progress, the Mercedes took outright honours by lapping closer to its regularity target.
A 48 kWh Leaf could have up to 250 miles (400 km) estimated range, although the extra weigh would reduce that slightly.
The electric Kia Soul is due to go on sale in the UK in October 2014, with prices set to rival those of other electric vehicles.
Yaser Shabsogh, Kia’s UK Commercial Director, has confirmed that the electric Soul will be offered in the UK, but not until the end of 2014, some months after the arrival of the new Soul in early 2014.
He said the projected prices were based on the assumption that the car would be sold with a battery, rather than via a leasing scheme. Kia is yet to decide whether to lease or sell the battery.
The car, which Shabsogh says will have a "low-to-mid £20,000" price tag, will also be eligible for the government's £5000 electric car grant, assuming the scheme is still operational as the car goes on sale.
Kia UK will use it to demonstrate Kia has cutting-edge EV technology available.
Shabsogh told Headline Auto:
It is not going to be priced to try to stimulate demand.
We won’t be selling hundreds of them – maybe a couple of hundred, mostly in the key metropolitan areas.
The bigger question for the manufacturer is the support network that an electric car would require, with Shabsogh saying: 'We would definitely have some specialist dealers that can charge and service it.'
Renault leads the electric vehicle market in Europe where it has sold over 34,000 electric vehicles since its first model, Kangoo Van Z.E., went on sale in late 2011. In this developing European electric vehicle market, Renault has a market share of 47% so far this year.
Renault ZOE, spearheads its Z.E. range of 100 per cent electric vehicles and is the world’s first affordable, purpose-built, all-electric supermini – perfect for households whether they’re commuting, doing supermarket and school runs, or even doing moderate distances.
ZOE’s official NEDC range is 130 miles (208 km), the longest of any affordable EV on sale today, with a real-world range of around 90 miles in temperate conditions or 60 in the harshest conditions. It is priced from just £13,995 on-the-road after grant, plus battery hire from £70 per month.
In addition to the Kangoo Van Z.E., Renault also offers Fluence Z.E. saloon; the two-seat commuter vehicle Twizy; and the ZOE supermini, launched earlier this year.
Twizy is Renault’s best-selling model with over 11,400 units sold since it went on sale in early 2012, closely followed by 11,000 Kangoo Z.E.
Tesla’s backlog of orders for the Model S continue well into March of next year despite a 25% increase in production rates over the second quarter. It is always great to be wanted, but how long will Tesla Model S demand outpace production?
Elon Musk told ABC News that the Tesla Model S “I am not worried about demand for the Model S as we are currently sold out through March of next year, so we don’t have a demand generation problem”.
Contributing to the strong demand for the Model S is that earlier this year Tesla introduced a new lease program and started deliveries of the Model S in Europe. In Norway Tesla is already breaking sales records and as of September is currently the best selling car there. Tesla EVs accounted for about one in 20 of all new cars sold easily outselling hybrids.
Also of note in addition to Norway, Switzerland and Netherlands are also very EV friendly. Those countries in particular are not only very green but also offer additional EV incentives: free EV parking, HOV or bus lane access to EVs and reduced VAT and/or no road tax for EVs. In addition to Europe Tesla plans to open it’s first Tesla Store in China by the end of the year.
Renault Samsung Motors, the local unit of French automaker Renault SA, has begun producing its electric sedans on Monday, its chief executive said.
The annual production capacity for its SM3 electric vehicle (EV) will reach up to 4,000 units starting next year at its assembly plant in Busan, said Francois Provost, the CEO of Samsung Renault Motors, at a ceremony in the southeastern port city.
"We are on track with our strategy and plan to become the firm leading" the EV market in Korea, Provost said, noting that his company has supplied 307 units of its sub-midsized EV to the country's southern resort island of Jeju and separately secured contracts for 500 units.
The SM3 EV can travel 135 kilometers on a single charge, according to the carmaker.
Though the price for an SM3 EV is set at 45 million won (US$42,000), with government subsidies for electric car buyers, the price tag comes down to 22 million won, the company said.
As part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the environment ministry and provincial authorities in Jeju have begun providing subsidies worth 15 million won and 8 million won, respectively, to zero-emission car buyers.
The ceremony came two months after GM Korea Co., the local unit of U.S. General Motors Co., unveiled the electric version of the compact Chevrolet Spark.
Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest carmaker, has also rolled out its electric car called the Ray and said it plans to introduce the electric version of its Soul box car in the first half of next year.
As of June, a total of 1,146 electric cars were used in the country, mostly by government agencies and public corporations, according to the environment ministry.
South Korea has installed 1,165 charging stations for electric vehicles across the country including 110 quick charge stations, the ministry said.
BMW will have to increase investment in electric-car production if demand for the new i3 model continues in line with initial orders.
Customers have reserved more than 8,000 of the battery-powered i3, which will cost $US41,350 ($43,500) in the US, even before the car hits showrooms in Europe next month, Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner said today in Amsterdam.
BMW expects to sell more than 10,000 of the four-person car next year and “will adjust capacity according to demand,” he said at a press conference. “If demand holds, which is what it's looking like, we will soon have to invest more.”
The maker of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles is upgrading its lineup with the i3, the new 4-Series coupe and a revamp of the X5 sport-utility vehicle to maintain its sales lead over Volkswagen AG's Audi and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz. Both competitors have vowed to surpass Munich-based BMW in deliveries by the end of the decade.
The i3 will go on sale in Germany for 34,950 euros ($50,100) on Nov. 16, followed by the US, China and Japan in the first half of next year. The model made its public debut July 29 at simultaneous events in New York, London and Beijing. The push to sell the electric car and recoup investments in the technology underpinning the vehicle include an international print, TV and Internet advertising campaign.
The spending on development of new models and expanding production capacity caused the operating profit margin at BMW's auto division to narrow to 9.6 per cent in the second quarter from 11.6 per cent a year earlier.
“We'll have to work very hard to keep profitability within our target corridor” of 8 per cent to 10 per cent in the coming years because of large investments required to meet stricter emissions regulations and the weak car market in Europe, Eichiner said today.
Sales gains in China and the US have helped BMW cushion the effects of the sovereign-debt crisis on Europe's car market, which is sliding to a 20-year low. BMW, which doesn't anticipate a recovery in demand in its home region before the second half of 2014, expects deliveries to rise this year for its third straight annual sales record.
“Demand in China and North America continues to be strong,” Eichiner said. “It makes sense for us to think about expanding production capacity in North America,” with the US and Mexico both options, he said.
The rollout of the i3 will go ahead as planned next month and won't be impacted by issues that typically affect the ramp up of a new model, he said. The executive was responding to a report by Wirtschaftswoche over the weekend that problems bonding carbon-fiber components for the car led to a 10-day production halt.
