Acceleration for electrification
Our media has already reported that Nissan tries to be revived by focusing on EVs. This is because electrification becomes not an ideal future but a mandatory future. Of course, climate change and carbon neutrality affect this situation. In fact, due to climate change, people all over the world have experienced so many natural disasters that may not be happened long time before.
Thus, we have to take actions to combat climate change and keep our society and planet sustainable for the future. Based on many researches, younger generations pay much more attention to this issue than older generations. Also, business executives must understand this reality. If they do ignore it, their investors, shareholders and stakeholders will not support their companies. What’s more, customers will not purchase their products and services anymore.
Carbon neutrality is getting more critical than before. In fact, the second and third largest economy, China and Japan, declared that they want to realize it within decades. Also, COP26 was held in 2021, many countries, cities and people had shared the sense of emergency to realize carbon neutrality.
Of course, climate change and carbon neutrality are not only factor to accelerate electrification in the automotive industry. However, they affected it tremendously.
Research and Development
The word, “Electrification”, and the phrase, “Electric Vehicle”, sound good. However, the reality is different and they need huge investment, in fact. For example, batteries still account for one third of EV’s cost and are relating to their quality. That is why big automotive manufactures such as General Motors and Ford are working with battery makers including Samsung SDI together.
In the case of Nissan, the company made a loss after the pandemic. It means that it has less money to invest in new technologies than its rival, Toyota. Therefore, it seems impossible for Nissan to adopt similar strategy that Toyota is taking. In other words, Toyota will be able to produce combustion engine cars, and hybrid, plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles. On the other hand, it would be better for Nissan to focus on the area that it wants to compete with.
That is why Nissan will stop the development of gasoline engine in several regions in the world. We think the decision makes sense and will report how it will work.
