Nissan's aggressive EV plans include Singapore

Yokohama

ELECTRIC vehicles (EVs) may be the future of motoring, but not everyone is racing away from the past at the same speed. Ivan Espinosa, a senior vice-president in charge of product planning and strategy at Nissan, told The Business Times that carmakers have to build a bridge to electrified motoring in countries that are slower to adopt full electrification.

Singapore is one of those countries, he said at the virtual launch event of the Nissan Ariya, a sleek new electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) that offers up to 610km of range. It is the brand's second full electric car, but Nissan is planning to develop seven more by the end of 2023. It has set itself a target of selling one million electrified cars a year by then.

The Ariya should go on sale here in the first quarter of 2022, about six months after it gets a global rollout next year in priority markets like China and Europe, where EV infrastructure such as public charging networks are more widespread. Nissan considers Singapore a developing EV market, along with the rest of Asia-Pacific outside of Japan and China.

For such markets, Nissan will push its range of e-Power vehicles, which are electric cars that draw current from a petrol-powered generator. The idea is to get customers used to electric propulsion without having to make drastic changes to their driving habits.

"While we intend to roll out our electrified vehicles to as many markets as we can, we understand that the infrastructure development in various countries is progressing at different levels. Our e-Power models help to bridge the gap in markets where the electric car infrastructure is not quite as developed", Mr Espinosa said.

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Local Nissan distributor Tan Chong Motor Sales currently offers two e-Power models for sale here, the Serena seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle, and the Kicks compact SUV. Ron Lim, Tan Chong's head of sales and marketing, says that customers here have been very receptive to the e-Power models.

"We have sold more than 500 Serena e-Power MPVs since its launch here last September," Mr Lim told BT.

Tan Chong has also sold about a hundred units of the Kicks in less than a month. Mr Lim attributed the strong response partly to the positive word-of-mouth from Serena e-Power owners.

But full EVs like the Ariya are a different prospect, as they still require charging facilities. A limited network of chargers means EVs have yet to seriously take off here. "We have been proactively engaging various government agencies to accelerate the adoption of EVs. However, as we continue to engage the government, we still see that more can be done," Mr Lim said. "As it is, most, if not all of the government agencies are still not familiar with electrified models like full EVs and our Nissan e-Power models, and thus do not consider them as viable options when considering transportation needs."

There are signs that things are improving, however. February's Budget announcement unveiled a slate of incentives to encourage EV adoption, including revised road tax structures and early adopter tax rebates. Also announced were plans to develop the public charging network to 28,000 points by 2030.

That could be just the thing to turn Singapore into a priority EV market for car makers like Nissan.