Nissan announces a slate of new models by 2026, over half of which will be EVs

Somehow, I’m not convinced that Nissan is in the most capable of hands. Here is the article from the NY Post that caught my attention:

Nissan reveals plans for 16 new electric vehicles by 2026 as EV demand revs up

Nissan laid out plans for 30 new vehicles by 2026 — 16 of which will be electric as demand for the battery-powered vehicles has revved up in recent months.

Nissan’s announcement, reported by Business Wire on Monday, noted “increased electrification” as part of the company’s new business strategy.

Introducing a slate of new vehicles, over half of which will be E.V.s, because demand has “revved up”? Where??

The NY Post item cites that a “record 317,000 EVs were sold” in 2023’s fourth quarter to justify Nissan’s gamble, but lets run through the rest of what we know about the market:

Ford’s E.V. division is hemorrhaging, and analysts expect the adoption of a new approach is imminent, because these losses are unsustainable. From an industry-specific outlet last month:

Ford’s EV division remains a loss-making business in 2023

Ford again recorded significant losses for its Model e electric car division in Q4/2023, amounting to around 1.6 billion dollars in the final quarter.

…

Ford Model e posted consistently high losses: in the fourth quarter, the loss of 1.6 billion dollars was just as high as sales. The loss was 1.3 and 1.1 billion dollars in the two previous quarters, respectively.

The EV division is thus deep in the red.

…

The Model E division thus lost an average of more than 47,000 dollars per vehicle in Q4/2023. The loss per EV rose from 32,350 dollars in Q2 to around 36,000 dollars in Q3. And Ford expects its electric models to remain a loss-making business in 2024. This year, the company expects the total loss to amount to 5 to 5.5 billion dollars.

Per the report, the cause was… “stagnating” sales.

The same goes for GM; The Ticker revealed that “challenges led to another decline in profits” for the company’s E.V. group (that 2023 loss came in at $2.5 billion, which was at least better that the 2022 loss of $3.3 billion).

Late last year, Toyota was forced to slash its E.V. sales forecast by almost 40%:

Toyota Motor Corp. lowered its electric vehicle sales expectations for this fiscal year by a rather significant 39 percent, from an initial 202,000 units to a less-than-stellar figure of 123,000[.]

Then, last month, Reuters reported this:

Apple cancels decade-long electric car project, source says

Apple … has canceled work on its electric car, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, a decade after the iPhone maker kicked off the project.

Of course, how could we forget Hertz’s E.V. drama and woes? From an essay I wrote just a week or so ago reporting on the company’s CEO resigning in E.V. disgrace:

I’ve previously written on Hertz’s battery-powered car flops—first in November, when Hertz had to admit it wasn’t even close to meeting its goal of an expansive E.V. fleet because the cars were way too expensive with too many liabilities; then in January of this year, when the company announced it was reneging on its promise altogether, and selling off around half(?) of the E.V.s the company still had.

To come back to an oft-repeated adage, articulate by John Adams:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Perhaps Nissan’s CEO ought to familiarize himself with Adams’s statement, and take it into consideration. Unless he knows something we don’t about more government subsidies and handouts ready to bail out the E.V. industry yet again, the future doesn’t look so bright for E.V. automakers.

Image generated by AI.