Nissan's plan for electric cars: buy the vehicle, lease the battery
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Nissan Nuvu concept
Remember when you were a kid and wanted that shiny new radio-controlled car from Toys 'R Us? The fine print at the bottom of the package almost always read, "Batteries Not Included." If Nissan's current plans go forward, that little saying may come back to haunt you when Nissan's electric vehicle goes on sale sometime after 2010.
Carlos Tavares, Nissan Motor Co.'s executive vice president for product planning and design, believes that in the not-so-distant future, we'll all be driving zero-emissions cars powered by electrons. When you make your way into the dealership to sign the paperwork, you'll be presented with two forms; one to purchase the car and one to lease the battery. Before we all get too upset about paying separately for our power packs, remember that filling up with gasoline will be a thing of the past as well -- in this particular vision for the future, at least -- so Tavares assures us that the overall cost to the consumer will actually be lower than it is today.
Another possibility presented by Tavares is car sharing, which is already taking place around the world on a very small scale. Instead of owning your own vehicle, you'd merely have access to one, time-share style, that would allow you entry into a garage full of vehicles from which to choose for your particular day's needs. To which we say, yeah... we'll see.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dave 2:05PM (11/14/2008)
Better than current hybrids where you have to buy a new battery at $5000+.
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aaron 2:07PM (11/14/2008)
This car is perfect for JDMlover.
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Russell 2:49PM (11/14/2008)
Ooooh, halos....
The Luigiian 3:36PM (11/14/2008)
"Hell yes you GM fanbois can have ur ugly american cars and i'll have me this LITTLE BEAUTY ON WHEELS!!!!!
"Every day I drive my TOYOTA it's like I'm driving on a LITTLE GLADE OF HEAVEN, with LOLIPOPS and UNICORNS.
"You GM FANBOYS are just LIVING IN THE PAST!!!!! love my toyota
... oh wait its a nissan. but its japanese so its ok with me!!!!"
Torrent 2:09PM (11/14/2008)
It kinda makes sense, but price and availability will be the issue. You can't just say, Well I had some extra cash so I went out real quick bought a spare battery pack for my car."
On an unrelated note That is the freakin ugliest car I have ever seen in my life. I thought seeing the 1st time was hard, the 2nd time is worse. You see stuff you didn't see before; Do the curved windows even roll down? No? well THAT spells practical.
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TJ 2:10PM (11/14/2008)
Um... wasn't EVERYONE slamming GM on the rumors of this happening with the Volt?
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alex 2:29PM (11/14/2008)
I was thinking the exact same thing!
Mark 9:14PM (11/14/2008)
They don't really care, they just love bashing the general.
JZeke 2:16PM (11/14/2008)
Um Autoblog, do your homework. This isn't Nissan's idea, its part of Project Better Place.
http://www.betterplace.com/
Shai Agassi, the CEO of this company has Israel and New Zealand on board to test out this idea. He's been working with Nissan/Renault to develop the first production car to use this concept. Wired did an interview piece on Mr. Agassi earlier this year.
Mr. Tavares is sharing Nissan/Renault's acceptance of Mr. Agassi's vision, and is selling the idea well. But it doesn't take a journalism degree to cite the proper resources.
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why not the LS2LS7? 4:15PM (11/14/2008)
Project Better Place is different.
Project Better Place includes battery swap stations. It also includes lots of places to recharge with integrated billing. It's like a "subscription" to charging. You plug in wherever you go, and your car is identified and the power is billed back to you.
I think this idea here is more along what GM proposed for the Volt.
JZeke 4:42PM (11/14/2008)
Actually this is Nissan's commitment to Project Better Place. I read through the website and the article, and Nissan/Renault is developing the project's first production vehicle. The AB spin makes it seem like it isnt.
arturo 2:20PM (11/14/2008)
there is a lot of people that drive scooters today. I am sure that a small cheap electric car would not be a bat idea.
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Erik 2:25PM (11/14/2008)
This sounds like a terrible idea
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Smegley 2:31PM (11/14/2008)
What's the point of a battery lease, really? How does it lower the cost? It doesn't - it's just more paperwork.
The only way this lowers costs is if there are competitor batteries that you can choose from at different prices. So I buy my Nissan electric car and get my battery at Autozone for $1500 instead of the $3500 Nissan batt. That'll force Nissan to offer better prices or value via their lease deal, but just saying "now you have to pay 2 bills instead of one" doesn't make anyone's life easier.
Besides, people like me hate leasing, and buy cash.
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JZeke 2:55PM (11/14/2008)
What AB hasn't mentioned, which makes this idea interesting is that we don't lease just ONE battery.
The idea of this plan is that in addition to recharging stations there will be battery exchange stations where the entire pack is swapped out in under 3 minutes. So if say, you are on a long road trip and don't have the time (like at a hotel) to charge your car, you stop into this place and get a fresh charged pack.
The big sell, the reason why people like you and me - who hate leasing - will be interested is that we treat the battery not as an owned good, but a commodity item like fuel. We pay for fuel, but we don't hold onto it. We burn it. Batteries will be treated the same way. We don't invest all this money in a battery like we would for our laptops. Instead we pay an upfront cost on having someone else provide us the service of making sure our cars always have juice.
This model has nothing to do with purchasing as we know it. The only thing we need to buy, is really the only thing we give a damn about - the car. This "lease" takes care of the maintenance, repair, replacement of the one element thats going to be dangerous - and expensive - for us to do ourselves.
Victor 2:56PM (11/14/2008)
Very true, but the infrastructure (and maybe standardization) needs to start somewhere. If I can lease a battery at a reasonable cost, why not? I'm assuming battery maintenance, longevity and replacement will be not my issue under a lease agreement.
Maybe after a while, if companies have these in place, then you start seeing other companies (a la autozone, etc) that will do the same. Buy your car at Nissan (or GM, etc) and have a battery delivery to the dealership.
JZeke 3:05PM (11/14/2008)
@ Victor
Good point,and its nice to see someone who gets it. Autozone et al will def be getting on board this, it is after all a natural extension of their battery exchange programs they already have in place.
Vincenzo 3:50PM (11/14/2008)
The point of leasing is that lithium batteries have to be recycled or disposed. Big lithium batteries can form toxic compounds.
nardvark 2:53PM (11/14/2008)
Car sharing is undesirable for a lot of people, because lots of people live out of their cars. My wife bounces between 2 jobs and classes, so she has food, clothes, an umbrella, school stuff, job stuff, CD's, cosmetics, sunglasses, a hat, candy, water bottles, maps, and probably other stuff I don't even know about tucked away in the car. Emptying that out and lugging it with her into a new car every day is not an option.
Also, I don't want to share a car with people who smoke, spill coffee, smell funny for non-smoking reasons, leave fingerprints all over the glass, don't wash their hands enough, shed excessively, or abuse their vehicles. Who pays for a warped brake rotor when one idiot rides the brakes excessively?
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Alex 6:39PM (11/14/2008)
Car sharing won't work for everyone nor is it intended to because there are people who need a car everyday to commute, travel, etc. For the vast majority of urban dwellers though that commute by public trans. its a huge hit. Here in Chicago its become very popular with younger professionals that don't want to waste $1000 a month on gas, car payments, parking, maintenance, repairs, insurance, etc. The cars range from BMWs to Toyotas, trucks to convertibles and you are charged if you damage or dirty up a car and from what I hear from friends that hasn't been a problem. Again it doesn't work for everyone but there is a huge market for it in urban areas where a car is considered a luxurious convenience and not a necessity.