Nissan Motor Co is aiming to be the world’s No. 1 in green cars, targeting cumulative sales of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles with alliance partner Renault SA of France.
The Japanese maker of the Leaf electric car yesterday announced its six-year strategy, planning a plug-in hybrid by fiscal 2016 and reducing carbon-dioxide emissions by 20 percent per vehicle compared with 2005 levels.
Nissan, based in Yokohama, also aims to improve its vehicles’ fuel efficiency by 35 percent by fiscal 2016 compared with 2005.
Photo: AFP
Nissan president and chief executive Carlos Ghosn said being ecological could deliver a competitive edge by allowing the automaker to stand out as good corporate citizen.
“More consumers are demanding products in line with their values, including cars and trucks with a lower carbon footprint,” he told reporters at company headquarters. “At the same time, we are using technology to make our factories greener and more efficient.”
Ghosn said Nissan was working on a fuel cell, another kind of zero-emissions vehicle, as well as other types of environmental technology such as clean diesels.
He said growth was coming from emerging markets, and Brazil, India and Russia are expected to overtake Japan in auto demand. The Japanese auto market, which has been stagnant for years, now trails China, the world’s largest.
Electric cars remain a niche market so far. Nissan has sold about 16,600 Leaf cars around the world since they went on sale in December last year.
However, competition in electric vehicles is likely to intensify as others, such as Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp, enter the sector.
Toyota already offers plug-in hybrid cars, which run partly as electric vehicles, but switch to become regular hybrids with gas engines when they run out of the electric charge.
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