Nissan announces Green Program 2016; targeting cumulative sales of 1.5M zero-emission vehicles across Alliance; new fuel cell electric vehicle with Daimler, new Nissan PHEV
24 October 2011
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced its new six-year environmental plan, Nissan Green Program 2016 (NGP 2016). This new plan will focus on three areas: reduction of carbon footprint; shift to renewable energy; and an increase in the diversity of resources used by Nissan. The company said it will spend 70% of its annual research and advanced engineering budget on environmental technologies.
Nissan Green Program 2016, the company’s third environmental mid-term plan, aims to deliver the following by the end of fiscal year 2016:
No. 1 in Zero-Emission Vehicles: cumulative sales of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles across the Renault-Nissan Alliance. On behalf of the Alliance, Nissan will lead the development of an all-new fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) together with strategic partner, Daimler.
Nissan is also planning to have 4 EVs on the market, including the Nissan LEAF, and says it will take global leadership in supplying batteries for electric drive. It also plans to develop and EV charge & discharge system and information network as well as to demonstrate smart house/ community/ grid technology, starting from Yokohama City.
Nissan said it will also provide a second-life energy storage system with used EV batteries through the 4R business.
Leading fuel efficiency: 35% fuel economy improvement compared with 2005 on a corporate average by launching products delivering class-leading fuel efficiency across a wide range of segments in Japan, China, Europe and the United States such as: an all-new front-wheel drive hybrid model and an all-new plug-in hybrid model based on Nissan’s unique technology. Nissan will also introduce a next-generation continuously variable transmission (CVT) and reach 20 million units of cumulative CVT production since Nissan’s first launch in 1992.
Nissan will also focus on developing light-weight technologies with structure optimization, new materials and new manufacturing processes.
The company also plans to contribute to CO2 reduction through the development of ITS technologies, and will collaborate to improve traffic congestion and eco-driving with the Beijing (China) City Government.
Leading low corporate carbon footprint: Reduce CO2 emissions corresponding to corporate activities by 20% per vehicle compared with 2005 through: widening the scope of measurable objectives, including logistics, offices, and dealerships in addition to production sites; and the introduction of renewable energy sources for manufacturing and related facilities.
Leading closed-loop recycling: being the first in the auto industry to set a recycling objective and adopt a comprehensive closed-loop recycling scheme, including steel, aluminum and plastic. Highlights include: achieving a recycled resource usage rate of 25% by 2016; applying recycled materials from production waste or end-of-life vehicles and parts into new vehicles; and reducing consumption of rare earth elements.
All the fuel cell knockers just have to deal with the fact that the king of the BEVs, Nissan, is still committed to bringing out an fcev and has always seem this as just as useful a way of doing an electric vehicle as batteries.
Posted by: Davemart | 24 October 2011 at 04:07 AM
If Nissan is correct, and specially if the other manufacturers follow, the worldwide cumulative sales of electrified vehicles may hit 1.5 x 18 = 27,000,000 by 2016.
That could be a lot more than most estimations to date.
Posted by: HarveyD | 24 October 2011 at 08:50 AM
A more sane estimate is that Nissin/Renault succeed in making 1.5 million BEV cumulated by 2016 and that Mitsubishi makes about 200000. The rest of the industry combined is still taking a wait and see approach (apart from the tiny upstarts Tesla and Fisker) are years behind in R&D and production plans and my guess is therefore their cumulated production of BEVs by 2016 is about 400000. Therefore, expect about 2.1 million BEVs on the road globally by ultimo 2016. Any chance that number will be higher will most likely be a result of faster than expected progress at the Nissan Renault alliance.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 24 October 2011 at 09:16 AM
Henrik....China and India will start to mass produce electrified vehicles soon. Electrified vehicles may be HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs. Toyota may produce more electrified vehicles than Nissan-Renault in the next 4 to 5 years.
Posted by: HarveyD | 24 October 2011 at 09:32 AM
Henrik,
I would pretty much go along with your estimate. Other manufacturers simply would not have time to tool up for large scale production by 2016 even if they changed their policy to as rapid development as they could manage.
You may be being a bit conservative on Mitsubishi as they are to be able to build about 70,000 a year by next April and are to build more factories giving them a capacity of 120,000 a year in the next phase. I don't remember when that is expected to take place.
AESC, Nissan's battery source, has ambitions to supply outside the Nissan/Renault group though, so perhaps that would provide a short cut for other manufacturers.
Posted by: Davemart | 24 October 2011 at 09:37 AM
A more realistic source of supply for higher production of BEVs by 2016 is the Renault/Nissan group, who may have the capability if they decide to go for it in 2012 of about doubling their electric car output to around 1 million vehicles a year by then, at which level they reckon they will be fully competitive with ICE.
Posted by: Davemart | 24 October 2011 at 10:43 AM
@Davemart
You are right at April 2012 they start production up at their 50k units fabric but expect 12 months before that level is reached. April 2013 they can do 50k units annually and the three factories they currently have each producing 6k units per year will most likely be shut down because they cost too much to operate in comparison with the new 50k factory. However, Mitsubishi has also announced they will build yet another 50 k unit battery plant. If they can get their second factory to full speed at ultimo 2014 my estimate for cumulative production is too low as they can do 100 k units in 2015 and another 100k in 2016 plus whatever they produce before primo 2015 which are about 120k so 320 k units is a better estimate for Mitsubishi by ultimo 2016. And we are assuming Mitsubishi will sell all their BEV. Maybe they can’t. We will see.
My hope for low cost BEV stays with Nissan / Renault because they will have the highest volume by far of any auto battery producer in the world.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 24 October 2011 at 10:59 AM
Daimler who are working with Nissan/Renault on electric vehicles and BWW should also not be forgotten.
Kia also are capable of ramping quickly once they get started, and have the battery industry right on their doorstep to provide the storage.
I have little concern about demand as I see oil supplies as increasingly limited and expensive.
Posted by: Davemart | 24 October 2011 at 12:03 PM