In 2020, Nissan suffered a strong commercial crisis in Europe, making the decision to focus on its three main markets (China, the United States, and Japan), leaving others such as Europe in the background. However, the Japanese firm wants to recover lost ground by launching new models and to be a 100% electric brand by 2030.
This has been confirmed by its president, Makoto Uchida, who in an appearance at the London design studio, indicated that “there is no going back with internal combustion engines, and Nissan will make the switch to electric cars by 2030 in Europe.” We believe it is the right thing to do for our business, our customers, and the planet .”
Nissan confirmed that it will launch two new electric cars in Europe. One of them will be produced at its Sunderland plant, in the north of England, where the LEAF comes from, and for which there are no details at the moment.
The second model is an all-new model car that will succeed the Micra as the entry-level vehicle in the Nissan range. It will be manufactured by Renault in Douai, France, alongside the electric Renault 5. Therefore, many similarities with the R5 are to be expected, including a price of around 25,000 euros.
A trickle of launches will mean putting up to 19 new electric cars on the market between 2024 and 2030 when the range will be made up exclusively of electric cars.
Will Nissan regain the trust of Europeans?
However, the great challenge for Nissan is to recover a position that it has had and that it has lost due to a lack of ambition and vision.
Bad decisions are reflected in a sales dynamic that has gone from bad to worse in recent years. And Nissan achieved peak sales in Europe in 2017 when it managed to register 560,000 units.
But from there, the collapse began, with 13% less sales in 2018, 19% less in 2019, 27% in the year of the pandemic, 2020, 10% less in 2021, and 9.2% less in 2022. A year where it barely reached 308,000 units throughout Europe.
The point is that Nissan has earned a bad reputation in the electric car sector due to the many problems of the first generations of the Nissan LEAF, and above all, the poor after-sales management provided to its first customers.
Some pioneers brought the brand to the top positions in sales of electric cars, and who were later abandoned when problems began with the batteries of their LEAFs. A trauma that many do not forget, and that they have transmitted to friends and family, creating an aura of distrust in a Nissan that is in 23rd place in sales in Spain, with just 1.1% of sales, with a LEAF that occupies the 54th place in terms of registrations so far this year and only 173 units.
But there are already more than the new Nissan Ariya accumulates, which has only registered 126 units so far in 2023, including dealer units.
