Nissan Committed to EVs, But Reaffirms Faith in Pickups, Too

Nissan Committed to EVs, But Reaffirms Faith in Pickups, Too

By Karl Brauer November 19, 2010

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. has enjoyed renown for many things, but most recently, its commitment to electric-vehicle technology, as evidenced by the soon-to-be-on-the-road Leaf battery-electric car.

But in an interview with Edmunds.com editors prior to this week's Los Angeles auto show, Carlos Tavares, Nissan Americas chairman, said the company also plans to enhance its presence at the other end of the spectrum: with pickup trucks.

Although Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. seem ready to vacate their once-dominant positions in the midsize-pickup segment, for example, Tavares said Nissan plans to redouble its efforts in all areas of the truck and SUV market.

Nissan had a brief deal with the "old" Chrysler to build the next-generation Nissan Titan fullsize pickup - a model that never has lived up to Nissan's hope to significantly assail the domestic automakers' overwhelming share of the segment - but that scheme is long dead and Tavares said Nissan now will go it alone to develop a new-generation pickup platform.

"You can expect to see Nissan in the compact and full-size truck segments. We are working on the next generation. It will be entirely in-house," Tavares said. Currently, the fullsize Titan and the midsize Frontier are based on the same chassis and it could be expected Nissan will follow that strategy again, although Tavares did not specifically say that would be the case.

But, he did say Nissan is going to do more to make purchase intenders aware of its breadth of product in the truck market.

So far this year, "We certainly saw in the U.S. and Canada a return of interest in trucks," Tavares said. "To a certain extent, I think we also discovered that we need to make our truck portfolio better-known to the consumers, because at the end of the day we have a fantastic portfolio of trucks.

"We have Xterra, Pathfinder, Armada, Frontier, Titan. We have a lot of product. So once this trend was visible (interest in trucks growing this year), we had to trigger marketing campaigns and advertisements to make those products known. We saw some outstanding shifts. For instance, Armada came out very, very strong. And people don't know it, but Frontier is around 15 percent market share in the segment. I think Armada is close to being double-digit market share.

"So some of those products really sparked," Tavares continued. "And I think we are not done with the potential of those products. Even Titan is selling better. I'm not sure we addressed that trend fully, in terms of marketing aggressiveness and overall efficiency, but we see ourselves growing (in the truck market)."

Being Up-Front: EVs Not For Everybody - Yet

Although the Leaf - which Tavares said officially goes on sale Dec. 11 - is the first major evidence to support Nissan's projection that EVs will account for 10 percent of global sales by 2020, Tavares said Nissan is being upfront with potential customers: if you intend to drive a long way at one sitting, the Leaf probably isn't the best choice.

"There are different needs that trigger different products," Tavares said. "We are not trying to embrace the full product portfolio with the Nissan Leaf. People with several cars in the household and a garage are committing to buy a Leaf. They will start by charging their car at night, at home. That's where we want to start. To make those people happy.
In some cases, though, Tavares said Nissan may admit to potential Leaf purchasers, "'Well, if this is your driving pattern perhaps you should buy something else.'"

He admitted that GM's Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid might be one solution to address the environmentally oriented buyer who wants significant electric driving range but no compromises on range.

"Volt is moving in the right direction. We have no issue with that. Simply, there is something that always bothers me is the fact that you need two power sources for one car. How much do you want to pay, in all sorts of metrics, right? Weight. Performance. MSRP. Whatever.

"But if the gasoline back-up engine is there, it's there. If you use it once, you use it once. In the same way, if you have a normal car and you don't put gas in the tank it will stop. So, Volt is moving in the right direction, but it's not zero emission."

Sales Rebound 'Not Spectacular,' But Solid

Tavares said the company is fairly happen with its recovery after two battering years for the auto industry - both in the U.S. and in the rest of the Americas, his region of command. But he said there's plenty of work to be done.

In the U.S., he said, "our market share went from 7.4 to 7.8 percent. We now have five cars that hold double-digit market share in their segment. So it's moving, progressing steadily. It's not as spectacular as some other brands - but it's healthy."

You have huge variation in market strength across the Americas. Everything south of the Rio Grande is on fire. In Mexico we are leading the market for 17 months in a row, and we have year-to-date 23 percent market share.

"We are moving very fast south of Mexico. If you put aside Brazil and Argentina, we are at 9.5 percent market share after growing 1.3 share points since last year. So not only is Latin America on fire, but we are growing faster than the market.

"And one of the things that is helping us is that we have a very strong sourcing basis in Mexico. We are using that sourcing base for Latin America because there are a lot of free trade agreements between Mexico and Latin America.

But Tavares concluded, "We have a big challenge in Brazil and Argentina were we are growing reasonably fast, in the 50 percent rate year-to-date basis, but starting with a number around 1 percent market share. So it's a very diverse region with very exciting, different challenges."

Photos by Nissan

1. Nissan will develop a next-generation Titan in-house, after all.

2. Shifting buyer demand hasn't meant a rocky time for the Frontier midsize pickup, which now holds double-digit market share.

3. Leaf is the first mainstream EV sold in the U.S.

4. Commerical vehicles, such as the coming 2012 NV, could be good candidates for proliferating EV technology.

Karl Brauer:  Edmunds.com Senior Analyst and Editor-at-Large Karl Brauer is a frequent contributor to AutoObserver.com.