As the auto industry moves toward a sustainable future, Nissan has made the strategic decision to ramp up their efforts in the electric vehicle market. The decision to accelerate its strategy comes as demand for zero-emission EVs continues climbing at a record pace.
Nissan is recognizing the shift in consumer preference and is now doubling down on its EV strategy.
After establishing an early lead with the release of the LEAF in 2011, Nissan is now falling behind as most automakers have a fully electric vehicle on the market.
Despite Nissan’s LEAF climb to become one of the top-selling electric vehicles globally, it’s taken over a decade for the Japanese automaker to release its second fully electric vehicle, the Ariya crossover SUV, which had to be delayed several times.
The 2023 Nissan Ariya is the Japanese automaker’s first electric SUV, and it comes with up to 304 miles of range and an MSRP of $43,190 (for the Engage FWD trim with 216 miles range).
As part of Nissan’s Ambition 2030, introduced in November 2021, the company announced it would introduce 23 electrified models, including 15 fully electric vehicles, by the end of the decade. The initial plans included 50% of total models across Nissan and Infiniti’s lineup to be EV or hybrid.
However, in response to “changes in customer needs and the business environment” toward fully electric vehicles, Nissan now plans to accelerate its strategy.
2023 Nissan Ariya electric crossover SUV (Source: Nissan)
Nissan accelerates Ambition 2030 electric vehicle strategy
Nissan announced Sunday in a press release it would ramp up efforts to bring fully electric vehicles to market.
The Japanese automaker is now planning to release 27 electrified models, including 19 new EVs, by 2030 with an electrification mix of 55%, up from 50% previously. In addition, Nissan is forecasting higher electric sales volumes sold in key markets by 2026, including:
Europe: 98%, up from 75% previously
Japan: 58%, up from 55%
China: 35%, down from 40%
United States: 40% (EV only)
Nissan projects the US to remain the same as previously forecast at 40% electric vehicle volume. To address the drop in China, Nissan says it will introduce an EV designed explicitly for the Chinese market.
In other news, Nissan is finding different ways to reduce emissions from its operations. The Japanese automaker is among the first to run a trial with all-electric heavy-duty trucks carrying new 2023 Nissan Ariya EVs to dealerships.
Electrek’s Take
It’s good to see Nissan doubling down on its electric vehicle strategy as the industry transitions to zero-emission EVs.
With a slate of new EVs and ambitious new targets, Nissan is taking steps toward hitting its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, the company will need to move quickly because nearly every other automaker has also recently increased its EV targets.
As Nissan is learning in China, showing up late makes it harder to breach the market, even with heightening demand.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.
This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.
In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”
The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.
One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.
Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.
They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.
Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.
At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: