Nissan plans electric car to challenge Chevrolet Volt
— -- Nissan says it could beat General Motors' highly publicized Chevrolet Volt to market, selling an electric car as soon as fall 2010 with an eye-popping fuel-economy rating equivalent to 367 miles per gallon and a range of 100 miles on a charge.
The electric car does not use petroleum fuel directly. The mpg equivalent is calculated using a federal formula that takes into account the fuel an electric utility would use to charge the car.
Ford said Wednesday that it will begin producing a battery-power version of the next-generation Focus compact sedan at a converted Michigan truck factory in 2011. An early prototype gets 357 mpg, using the federal math.
Chrysler continues to insist that it will field an electric in 2010, though it's currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and is mostly shut down.
Showing how competitive the once-exotic and obscure electric-car segment has become, Mitsubishi and Smart also plan electrics in 2010. Tesla, a small independent, has sold a few.
Breaking a long-embraced rule of secrecy, automakers are spotlighting electrics 18 to 24 months ahead of production to be in the forefront of what they expect to be a large-scale shift to electric power the next few years, pushed by the Obama administration.
Ford plans 5,000 to 10,000 battery Focuses in 2011. Nissan hopes to sell a few electrics in 2010 where cities and counties are aggressively installing recharging stations, accelerating to tens of thousands a year as soon as 2012. CEO Carlos Ghosn says electrics will be 10% of Nissan global sales by 2015. That's 100,000 or more in the U.S.
Demand for electrics will boom if automakers can keep prices down and driving range up, says Mike Omotoso, manager of powertrain forecasting at consultant J.D. Power and Associates.
He expects as many as 100,000 electric sales in 2015 and says GM could sell as many as 45,000 Volts in 2011.
Automakers haven't disclosed pricing, though GM executives' comments suggest $35,000 to $40,000 for Volt. And Nissan says its small electric will be priced about the same as a conventional midsize sedan.
