Nissan Plans To Present Affordable EVs To Face Tight Competition With Chinese Manufacturers

Nissan Leaf 2023 (Doc. Nissan Global)

JAKARTA - Nissan, the pioneer of electric vehicles (EV) with the Leaf model, is now facing fierce competition from Chinese automotive manufacturers. This competition is a warning to Nissan, who has been in the EV market for 13 years. To adjust, Nissan CEO, Makoto Uchida, indicated the need to revise development plans and strategies in order to compete, especially in providing affordable EVs.

Makoto Uchida, as CEO of Nissan, said that his party thought EV sales would take place slowly, in fact, the transition and global movement would be faster thanks to efforts from several Chinese companies.

We are discussing prices. We are looking for affordable prices for electric vehicles around the world. This is one of the important things going forward," said Makoto Uchida as quoted by Autocar, Saturday, October 28.

Uchida also explained that it has no plans to lower the price of its EV model, but will create good quality cars at affordable prices compared to offering small-dimensional vehicles.

Furthermore, the Japanese man did not want to comment on whether governments around the world should apply tariffs for Chinese vehicles to ensure greater equality with locally produced models.

We are not talking about the government. There are currently strong waves from China and we need to see how we address this as a pioneer of electric vehicles and how to change the way we build EVs and become competitive in every market, "explained Uchida.

The plan, Nissan is rumored to be presenting more electrified models in its strategic plan, "Nissan Ambition 2030". The manufacturer plans to launch 19 EV models by the end of the decade.

In addition, Nissan will also launch the latest all-solid-state battery technology which will be developed internally in 2028.