Japan’s Nissan betting US$9.5 billion on China’s growing eco-friendly car buyers
Half of the 40 new models planned for launch through 2022 will be full electric or hybrid models
Nissan Motor Co, the biggest-selling Japanese car brand in China, is betting heavily on environmentally-friendly mainland Chinese buyers with a plan to introduce more than 20 electric car models by 2022.
The ambitious plan will involve investment of 60 billion yuan (US$9.5 billion), making China the Japanese carmaker’s biggest single market, the company said on Monday.
“We didn’t know how the [electric vehicle] market would grow in China so therefore didn’t capitalise much, but meanwhile local competitors’ growth is much faster than our expectation,” Jun Seki, president of Dongfeng Motor, a joint venture between Nissan and China’s Dongfeng Group, told reporters.
Half of the 40 new models planned for launch through 2022 will be full electric or hybrid models, with “competitive” pricing, according to Seki.
Dedicated electric carmakers have emerged in China in recent years after the government began issuing EV manufacturing permits to companies outside the traditional car industry players.
Last year, a total of 777,000 new energy vehicles were sold in mainland China. Sales of fully electric and hybrid vehicles grew 82 per cent and 39 per cent respectively, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.