With improved range, electric vehicles still face challenges

September 10, 2017

TOKYO- Electric vehicles still face challenges to overcome before going mainstream in Japan after Nissan Motor Co. boosted the range of its own model by about 1.4 times.

Electric vehicles made up only 0.6 percent of the 227,766 passenger cars sold in the country in December 2016, excluding mini-vehicles.

Cumulative sales of Nissan's Leaf electric vehicle, first released in 2010, totaled about 80,000 units in Japan, short of the company's target.

A short range has been one of major challenges.

A new version of the Leaf, which will go on sale in Japan on Oct. 2, can travel up to 400 kilometers on a single charge, up from 280 kilometers for the current model.

"Concerns can be wiped out," said Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa, noting that the new Leaf's range poses no problems when used in daily life.

Nissan aims to double or triple sales of the Leaf. The automaker plans to roll out a longer-range Leaf next year.

While achieving an improved range, electric vehicles are still relatively expensive and have only an insufficient network of electric chargers.

An electric vehicle is priced at least several hundreds of thousands of yen higher than a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle.

About 28,000 electric chargers are installed across Japan, still short of the number of gas stations.

A new partnership announced by rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. last month includes the joint development of electric vehicle technology.

Nissan CEO Saikawa said electric vehicles are likely to start spreading in 2019 or 2020 when an increasing number of models are becoming available. Jiji Press