Nissan Stealthily on Track for Electric Car World Domination
As the dust settles out from the 2008 LA Auto Show, Nissan has clearly emerged as the car company to beat in our transportation future.
From a green perspective, even though the Mini E is getting the most hype, the Mitsubishi i MiEV is one hell of a fun car to drive, and the Honda FCX Clarity is cutting edge, those are just cars. The true measure of a car company lies in its strategies, and, after Nissan’s recent media blitz, the company has shown that there is not a single other auto manufacturer out there who “just gets it” like they do.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
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“What’s so cohesive and salient about Nissan’s big-picture strategy,” you ask? Here are some snippets:
- Nissan is bringing the first of their electric cars to market by 2010 in many locations around the United States. According to Alan Buddendeck, Nissan’s VP for North American Corporate Communications, this car will be priced between $22-$25K and have at least a range of 100 miles.
- By 2012, Nissan will be bringing an entire lineup of affordable electric cars (sedans, minivans, compact cars, and sports cars) to the world market. This isn’t just some limited roll-out, and they’re beyond serious about it. Their overarching business plan has been re-written to focus on zero emissions vehicles.
- Nissan has rolled out a rather ingenious plan of collaboration with as many state, local and federal organizations that are willing to cooperate with them to develop the infrastructure needed for an electric car-based society.
- They have taken much of their top-level engineering and marketing talent and fully diverted them into the electric car project. Besides allowing Nissan to reach their goals, this strategy seems to have energized and remoralized the company as a whole — you can see it in the way they present themselves.
- In addition to diverting huge amounts of resources to the project, Nissan has made the conscious decision to open otherwise proprietary information to their partners. Essentially it seems that Nissan has gone mildly “open source” in their approach to Getting Things Done. Power to the people.
It’s actually this last point that convinced me Nissan is the one to beat — the dominant force to follow into our seemingly overwhelming challenge — and I’ll tell you how I got clued into this reality. While I was down in LA last week, I had the chance to talk with several high-ranking project management types from many different companies
When I asked Peter Krams, the engineer in charge of the Mini E project, if Mini was interested in conducting the same partnerships as Nissan and what he thought about Nissan’s strategies, I was surprised by his answers.
Mini is of the mindset that all of their development should remain in house to protect their bottom line and that Nissan’s strategy is stupid because it doesn’t maintain their intellectual property. So, essentially, Mini wants nothing to do with the sharing of ideas because they think they won’t maximize their profits if they do. That’s so f-in old school, it drives me nuts. My immediate thought was, “I guess we’ll be seeing you in the junkyard then.” Mini will be left in the dust with this mentality.
Likewise, when I talked with David Patterson, Mitsubishi’s senior manager for regulatory affairs and certification, and asked him about Nissan’s strategies in Oregon, his reaction showed that perhaps Nissan had beaten them to the punch and he wished Mitsubishi had had the idea first. In fact, after Nissan’s announcement of collaboration with Oregon, apparently Mitsubishi called up some officials in the state to see if they could get a piece of the pie. While it’s exceedingly cool of Mitsubishi to realize how good Nissan’s strategy is, at this point they’re playing catch up.
One final point: If the Big Three are swirling the toilet bowl drain getting ready to be flushed, Nissan represents the exact opposite. In fact, Nissan could be the blueprint for the Big Three US automakers to pull themselves out of their nosedives and stop bellyaching about this or that problem that has held them down.
Look, if GM, Chrysler and Ford would put out a plan like Nissan’s, they’d find much less resistance in the public towards a bailout. How difficult is it really? In a way, Nissan’s plan is simply common sense orchestrated on a grand scale and communicated precisely.
Which is why it strikes such a chord with the public. It does the world a true service while at the same time positioning Nissan for automotive domination. In many cases, people simply need to see good leadership and they’re convinced. In fact, as I hinted at before, we may be witnessing the birth of a new paradigm in corporate strategy, the introduction of “open source” business planning.
If I’m right, It’s a bold new plan for this brave new world and I wish Nissan all the best — but, from what I’ve seen, they really don ‘t seem to need it.
I haven’t purchased anything out of Detroit since 1987. They tend to follow the paradigm of “if at first you don’t succeed, do it wrong again”.
For 50 weeks of the year I drive less than 100mi. a day. For 2 weeks I may or may not drive over 100mi a day, making a rental or commercial carrier a viable option.
If the production costs come down, it’s a “no brainer”
What a very well thought out writing! Instead of operating our lives completely focused upon ourselves and strictly how much profit we will gain individually. We need to concentrate upon what outcomes our actions will produce. For us and the rest of our world!! All of this B/S about labor unions and CEOs being paid enormous sums of money is a waste of time!!
The simple fact is that the money our manufacturing companies save. Frome the improvement in efficiency and cost savings of a more robotic and advanced manufacturing process. Is wrongfully being HoGGED (OINK OiNK) by money addicted arrogant CEOs and their pals in our government.
IT is a fact that the rapid growing improvement in the technology used to produce our vehicles. Has eliminated jobs and freed up money that goes into the wrong hands!!
It is complete B/S that the manufacturing technology that eliminates costs and employees in an ever increasing speed is producing more jobs! Because as our ability to streamline the manufacturing process grows. The amount of people needed to be involved lessens.
We are past a point where technology creates more jobs. The difficulty to manipulate and utilize our new tech is becoming increasingly simple! This is common sense!!
The real problem is the arrogance and fear of the upper and mid management levels in industry. That continue to exist in a dangerous state of DENIAL. These sad specimens are realizing that technology is not only replacing the low level manufacturing jobs.
But has also begun to eliminate many of the top level jobs!
The fact of the matter is that much of our manufacturing technology has become so simple to operate that my 12 year old cousin could operate it.
The CEO’s and their crooners in Washington and their attempt to cover up their arrogance theft are right at this moment! Trying to cover up the harm they have been causing the world!
Remember that it is not their fault!! this is a completely new problem of society!! In which the amount of physical labor required to run the world has shrunken below the population…
This is only human Nature! and i Believe that if we quickly move past this mistake. The human race can heal and the mistake can go down in history as the day Humanity joined together and changed all of our lives for the better!
AMEN! IN These times more than ever we need too express an attitude of compasssion for the real mistake is all of ours!
DO NOT FING FAULT!! FIND A REMEDY!!
The Honda clarity may be “cutting edge” and technically production, but 200 vehicle leased over three years?
I wonder if this will turn out no different.
I drive over 130 miles per day to and from work - long story why (saving up for a house)… The EV wouldnt make sense for me yet, however I’m sure in this plug n play society a car designer is going to sit down and say:
“Hey what if we build a modulable vehicle? Like have the hatchback come off with relative ease and have a back attach to the back - this back has a large array of batteries… turning your trusty 100 mile per trip hatchback into a (still) trusty 600 mile per trip station-wagon…”
All the big 3 have to do is realise that the publics product knowlege is very good these days - many people research prior to purchases now, especially large purchases like (you guessed it) cars… People like stable, effective vehicles.
So I guess for now I’m stuck with dirty gas car, by the time EV’s are on the road here in Canada I’ll be able to purchase one anyways, and hopefully only living a few miles from work!
Chuck, you know you can rent cars now for those occasional trips. Planes and trains are useful for those types of things too.
It is good to see that most people here see a 100 mile range as optimal. There are many more options for those that need to travel long distances but for everyday and city driving you cant beat an EV. Ask anyone who has been in a traffic snarl in an electric vehicle and they will tell you what an ideal vehicle this is for city driving: silent, no fumes, no smell and it does not sit there idling in a traffic; it simply switches off when not in motion!
ChuckL, in order to remain objective, you have to throw out R. Limbaugh thinking. You throw politics into science and you end up with a brouhaha and nothing gets done. There is so much good science going on out there stifled by politics. Under the GOP we presently have socialism for the wealthy, while condemning it for everyone else. I assume you are an R. Limbaugh fan from your posting, but just the other day he had to admit on the air that the GOP ‘broke the bank.’ This blog looks like a good venue for progress and politics should be kept at a minimum. I realize that that is somewhat naive and idealistic, but it is a goal.
The Big Three have missed what a lot of us already knew - Hummers, Corvettes, Suburbans, Escalades, Excursions, etc were wasteful, dead ends. How much wasted funding went into those lines that should have been put into efficient transportation? The day of the one size/type of transpo fits all is dead. Bikes, rentals, hybrids, electrics all will be part of the smart mix.
Open source didn’t kill IBM’s PC invention, hide bound corporate myopia, inertia, lack of vision and arrogance did. Gates just was more nimble and, vitally, first. Apple stuck with the closed source model and while successful, remains a niche market PC player. Fair disclosure: My first, and fondest and enabling PCs were Apple Macs and one of my all time favorite cars was a ‘67 Corvette. Neither are, today, practical for various reasons. Time to move on.
As one who has been driving a Toyota RAV4 EV for 6 years, I can attest to its viability. We charge it from a 3 kW solar PV system that generates enough energy for our house and car rendering our electric bill to only about $50 per year. Gotta love that.
We get an easy 120 miles per charge, too, and this is on a nickel metal hydride battery pack, not the lighter lithium ion batteries.
For long distance trips a plug-in hybrid is the way to go. I envision the future vehicle mix will be something over 50% pure EV and something less than 50% as PHEVs. The Chevy volt is a good example of the latter. With a LiIon battery pack holding about 16 kWh, the Volt will be able to travel a good 40 miles on a charge (it’s actually able to go farther, but the software will limit it from going too close to empty in order to preserve the life of the pack). Since most folks drive less than 40 miles per day, they will not use any gas. Once you drain the battery, a small, efficient gas engine that is attached to a generator will automatically come on generating power to charge the pack and run the motor.
Some 8 OEMs are in development on PHEVs and at least that many are developing EVs.
As for our RAV, we’re 65,000 miles on the odometer and haven’t had any maintenance at all. EVs just keep running like new for years and year. Eventually the pack will fade out and we’ll just buy a new one. The motor should last close to a million miles. Doubt I’ll keep it that long:~)
@ ChuckL
Don’t forget other big three (Toyota, Honda, Nissan)also under the same US law, but they have the better ways to deal with same problem that Big three facing. That’s the point.