Nissan announced that it will stop developing new internal combustion engines and, together with its affiliated companies Renault and Mitsubishi, plans to continue to invest in electric vehicles.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and other major local media reported on the 8th, Nissan has decided to stop developing engines for new cars sold in major markets in the future. All the costs and manpower previously spent developing gasoline and diesel engines will be shifted to the electric vehicle business.
Interestingly, all the fixed costs used to commercialize existing internal combustion engines are invested in the development of electric vehicles. Local media wrote that Nissan's fixed annual R&D spending of about 500 billion yen has also been converted into the development cost of electric vehicles. As a result, it is expected that the mass production time of all-solid-state batteries with mass production targets in 2028 will be further accelerated.
In addition, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance recently increased its budget more than threefold and announced full joint development of electric vehicles. The plan is to invest 20 billion euros in the field of electric vehicles over the next five years, with a total expenditure of 30 billion euros.
They plan to launch more than 30 electric vehicles using five joint platforms by 2030. It is reported that there are currently four platforms that have been mass-produced or are in the final stages of development. The first production models were the Renault Mega E-Tech and Nissan Ariya types, and were built on the CMF EV platform.
Nissan is also accelerating battery development. In 2025, it is planned to build battery recycling facilities in the United States and Europe, and mass production of cobalt-free batteries from 2028 to ensure cost competitiveness. The company plans to have its own battery production capacity of 130 GWh by 2030.
Japanese automakers are accelerating the announcement of electrification. Honda announced it will be the first Japanese automaker to fully electrify by 2040, while Toyota announced it will build Lexus into a fully electrified brand by 2030. Nissan is also joining, and Japan seems to be seriously joining the electric car race.
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.
However, Nissan's transformation is still somewhat radical, first of all, Nissan does not have a particularly popular pure electric vehicle in the Chinese market. Sales of pure electric vehicles are also low. Second, many chinese automakers have not announced that they will stop developing internal combustion engines. Instead, it is two legs to walk, on the one hand, the internal combustion engine car does not give up, on the other hand, the new energy vehicle increases investment. Therefore, Nissan's decision is more like a decision to break the boat, and it is likely that new energy vehicles will not sell well, and the market for internal combustion engine vehicles will also be eroded.