Electric Car Adoption Will Be Slow, Says Nissan Chief
Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said today that adoption of electric vehicles will be a slow and gradual process, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Ghosn, who has spearheaded Nissan’s effort to go with battery-powered electric vehicles instead of hybrids, said that traditional gasoline-powered cars would continue to dominate the market for many years. He predicted that about 10% of vehicles sold worldwide by 2020 would be powered by electricity.
“We’re not going to take the market by storm,” Ghosn said. “Electricity is going to complement oil.”
Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle is currently on a multi-city tour of the U.S. On the tour, Ghosn has said that more than 25,000 people signed up on Nissan’s web site expressing interest in the vehicle, according to the AP.
Ghosn’s view of the electric car market could be considered optimistic by comparison to a study recently released by Lux Research. The Lux study contends that if oil remains at $70 per barrel, electric vehicles will be just 3% of global new car sales by 2020.
Kayak47 commented:
Nobody is talking about the deadly waste products from making batteries. Electric cars are a great idea but need much refinement. (I sure wouldn’t want to be in one with a batterie fire!) Self generation of electricity is the KEY!
Ed commented:
It seems like the auto companies need to split the problem in two. First they need to develop a standard electric motor driven automobile platform. A variety of “skins” could be applied to that electric car platform to create numerous showroom products. This platform needs to be segregated from the on board electric technology. The on-board electricity technology, used to propel the platform, will certainly evolve over time. For example, large battery packs (Nissan Leaf), combinatio of small battery pack with gasoline engine generator (serial hybrid like the Chevy Volt), hydrogen fuel cells, or battery packs with alternate fuel generators which run on CNG.
I went to the Nissan Leaf tour yesterday in San Diego and was able to see the car (prototype) and talk to the folks. I’ll definitely be purchasing one when they are offered for sale. Ghosn needs to stop talking down the electric car. No big success ever happened by shooting low.
Marshall commented:
I imagine that Mr. Ghosn would like to replicate the success of the Prius and have the early market to himself. He must know, as we do, that there is much pentup demand for practical hiway electric cars. Once good ones get out there for others to see I believe it will catch on very quickly. Even so, 10 per cent of the global market in ten years is nothing to sniff at.
