Per reporter: Pei Jianru Per reporter Per editor: Sun Lei
Japanese car companies are accelerating the pace of embracing electrification.
A few days ago, according to the Nikkei Shimbun, Nissan Motor will stop developing new internal combustion engines for the Japanese, Chinese and European markets and focus its resources on electric vehicles. Nissan spends about 500 billion yen a year on research and development, most of which is spent on gasoline engines and models. In the future, these funds will be used for the development of electric vehicles and other technologies.
According to the above report, emissions restrictions for vehicles are currently being tightened around the world to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles. In Europe, the new Euro 7 emission standards will come into force as early as 2025. Nissan Expects the new standard to significantly increase the development cost of the internal combustion engine. In japan and The Chinese market, Nissan does not intend to produce new internal combustion engines, but continues to improve existing engines and continues to research hybrid systems.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Nissan Automobile China said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter: "At present, no information in this regard has been obtained, and (the above report) cannot be commented on. ”
In the next five years, 15 pure electric models will be launched
Although the above news has not been officially "stamped", the process of Nissan's transition to electrification is accelerating.
At the end of 2021, Nissan Motor released the "Nissan Ambition 2030" (Nissan Ambition 2030), announcing that it will take the transformation of electric drive as the core, and plans to invest 2 trillion yen (about 112.84 billion yuan) in the next five years to accelerate the layout of electric drive products and technological innovation.
According to the plan, by fiscal year 2030, Nissan Motor will launch 23 electric vehicle models, including 15 pure electric models, and Nissan and Infiniti brands will account for more than 50% of electric vehicle models. By fiscal 2026, Nissan wants to take the lead in the European market to achieve core passenger car electro-drive, with electric vehicle sales accounting for more than 75% of total model sales; Sales of electric-driven models in the Japanese market account for more than 55% of total model sales; sales of electric-driven models in the Chinese market account for more than 40% of total model sales; and as of fiscal 2030, Nissan's sales of pure electric vehicles in the US market will account for 40% of its total model sales.
Image source: Courtesy of the enterprise
Not only that, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance also mentioned in the "Alliance 2030 Vision" released in January this year that the alliance plans to invest 23 billion euros in electrification in the next five years; by 2030, the alliance will launch 35 new pure electric models.
China, one of Nissan's core markets, is also accelerating the introduction of electrified models here. According to the information previously disclosed, Nissan Motor plans to introduce nine electric drive models to the Chinese market by 2025, including the latest pure electric crossover SUV model, Nissan Aria.
It is worth mentioning that under the "Nissan NEXT Enterprise Transformation Plan", Nissan Motor's performance has also ushered in an improvement. According to the latest data from Nissan Motor, in the first three quarters of fiscal 2021 (April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021), Nissan Motor's consolidated net income was 6.15 trillion yen, consolidated operating profit was 191.3 billion yen, operating margin was 3.1%, and net income was 201.3 billion yen.
Despite factors such as chip supply shortages and factory operations affected by the pandemic, Nissan maintained its sales forecast for the full year 2021 at 3.8 million units and raised its forecast for operating profit and net profit in fiscal 2021. Specifically, Nissan Expects its full-year fiscal 2021 net income to be 8.71 trillion yen; operating profit of 210 billion yen, an increase of 30 billion yen from previous expectations; and net profit of 205 billion yen, an increase of 25 billion yen from previous expectations.
Makoto Uchida, CHIEF Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Company, said: "The fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 is still full of uncertainty, and we will continue to strengthen our measures to achieve the increased full-year forecast and 2% operating margin. Nissan Motor will continue to steadily advance the 'Nissan NEXT Corporate Transformation Program' globally, achieving an operating margin of 5% in fiscal 2023. ”
Japanese car companies have made great efforts to increase electrification
In fact, not only Nissan Motor, but also Japanese car companies represented by Toyota and Honda are making a big fuss about the transformation of electrification.
In December 2021, Toyota Motor upgraded its electrification strategy, saying that it will raise its global annual bev global sales plan from 2 million to 3.5 million units in 2030, and in the same year, Lexus will achieve 100% BEV model sales in China, North America, and Europe, with global sales of 1 million units; toyota motor vehicles is expected to introduce 30 BEV models by 2030, providing a comprehensive lineup of products in various fields including passenger cars and commercial vehicles; by 2035, Toyota Motor will achieve 100% global sales of BEV models.
"I'm not interested in the previous Toyota BEV, but I'm confident about the future BEV. I believe it is more important to respond to changes in a timely manner than to anticipate the future. In this era of diversification without standard answers, it is important to flexibly change the type and quantity of production while observing market trends. We want to continue to offer our customers a wide range of options until we find the right answers. Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda said.
Coincidentally, Honda Automobile also threw out the electrification "big move" last year, and the first e:NS1 and e:NP1 pure electric vehicles were put into production at Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda respectively, and are scheduled to be put on sale in the spring of 2022. According to Honda's electrification roadmap, in advanced markets including China, Honda's sales of pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles are planned to reach 40% in 2030, 80% in 2035, and 100% in 2040.
Focusing on the Chinese market, Honda Motor will launch 10 new Honda brand pure electric vehicle models in five consecutive years, and all new models launched by Honda in China after 2030 are pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and no new fuel vehicles will be released. At the same time, Guangqi Honda and Dongfeng Honda will build new plants for pure electric vehicles, which are scheduled to be put into operation from 2024, and the pure electric vehicles produced by Honda in China will be supplied to overseas markets in the future.
"China is the world's largest electric vehicle market, and the awareness of customer groups in electric vehicles is also very strong, and various car companies are also very active in launching electric models. In such an environment, it is important for Honda to be able to establish the direction of electrification in the Chinese market. If Honda can gain a foothold in China's electric vehicle market, it can gain a foothold in the global electric vehicle market. Katsushi Inoue, executive executive director and china president of Honda Giken Industrial Co., Ltd., general manager of Honda Giken Industry (China) Investment Co., Ltd., and general manager of Honda Giken Technology (China) Co., Ltd., told reporters.
In the view of Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Association, it is the trend of the times for Japanese car companies to accelerate the wave of electrification, but they are also generally facing the problem of insufficient accumulation of pure electric vehicles and weak industrial chains, and how to update concepts and actively transform is a topic that needs to be focused on.
Daily economic news