Nissan is Investing $17.6 Billion Over Five Years to Electrify its Model Lineup, Will Introduce 23 New Electrified Models by 2030

author: Eric Walz   

The Nissan CHILL-OUT concept SUV offers a glimpse of what Nissan's future EVs will look like.

Japanese automaker Nissan has announced it will make a massive investment in electric vehicles in one of the biggest financial commitments in the automaker's history. The bold initiative is called "Nissan Ambition 2030". 

Nissan said its investing $2 trillion yen (US$17.6 billion) over the next five years to accelerate the electrification of its vehicle lineup and boost the automaker's technology innovation. Nissan Ambition 2030 will make electrification the core of the company's long-term strategy as its looks to compete with Tesla.

On Monday, Nissan announced it will introduce 23 new electrified models by 2030, 15 of which will be purely electric models. The automaker aims for an electrification mix of more than 50% globally across Nissan and its luxury brand Infinity.

By 2026, Nissan aims to have EVs make up over 75% of its vehicle sales in Europe, 55% in Japan, and 40% of models in China. For the United States, Nissan plans for EVs to account for 40% of its sales by  2030.

Nissans plans mirror that of automakers General Motors, Ford Motor Co, Volkswagen and others, which are investing billions to electrify their models lineups and adapt to a changing auto industry that's moving quickly towards electrification.

"The role of companies to address societal needs is increasingly heightened," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida. "With Nissan Ambition 2030, we will drive the new age of electrification, advance technologies to reduce carbon footprint and pursue new business opportunities. We want to transform Nissan to become a sustainable company that is truly needed by customers and society."

Nissan also unveiled three new concept cars that offer a glimpse of what Nissan's future electric vehicle might look like.

To support Nissan's ambitious electrification plans, the automaker said it will continue to evolve its lithium-ion battery technologies and introduce cobalt-free battery technology to bring down the costs by roughly 65% by fiscal year 2028.

Nissan aims to launch EV with its proprietary all-solid-state batteries (ASSB) by fiscal year 2028. The company aims to have a battery pilot plant in Yokohama operational as early as 2024. 

In August, Nissan's Chinese battery partner Envision Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) announced that it would spend 50 billion yen ($460 million) to build a new battery plant in Japan's Ibaraki prefecture north of Tokyo. The plant will supply batteries for Nissan's future EVs.

Nissan also pledged $1.4 billion with AESC to build an EV battery plant in Britain that will power 100,000 vehicles a year including a new crossover model.

Working with its partners, Nissan intends to increase its global battery production capacity to 52 GWh by fiscal year 2026, and 130 GWh by fiscal year 2030.

By using solid-state batteries, Nissan's future EVs will offer high performance, increased range and reduced charging times by one third. The lower cost batteries will help Nissan price its future electrified vehicles more competitively. 

Nissan expects to bring the cost of battery packs down to $75 per kWh by fiscal year 2028 and $65 per kWh shortly afterwards to make its EVs more affordable. The $65 per kWh price point will lower the cost of Nissan's future EVs to that of gas-powered models. 

Nissan Ambition 2030 will also include the rollout of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), including autonomous driving capabilities, across more Nissan models.

Nissan aims to expand its ProPILOT driver assist technology to over 2.5 million Nissan and Infiniti vehicles by fiscal year 2026. The automaker will incorporate next generation LiDAR systems on virtually every new model by fiscal year 2030 to support autonomous driving.

In addition to the technology upgrades across its model lineup, Nissan plans to localize manufacturing and sourcing to make EVs more competitive. 

Nissan will also invest up to 20 billion yen by 2026 to build EV charging infrastructure.

"We are proud of our long track record of innovation, and of our role in delivering the EV revolution. With our new ambition, we continue to take the lead in accelerating the natural shift to EVs by creating customer pull through an attractive proposition by driving excitement, enabling adoption and creating a cleaner world," said Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta.

To support its goals, Nissan intends to hire more than 3,000 employees in advanced research and development globally, while continuing to train its current workforce to produce more high-tech vehicles. 

In addition to Nissan's bold NEXT transformation plan, the company will sustain its transformation to EVs over the long-term by keeping its operating profit margin above 5%.

Nissan was an EV pioneer well before Tesla. The popular Nissan Leaf was one of the only EVs on the market in the U.S. when its launched in 2011. As of December 2020, global sales of the Leaf reached 500,000 units.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.