At a time when most car manufacturers intend to continue producing internal combustion engines, Nissan plans to direct budget funds to electric technologies. About it in his interview to the Australian edition of Drive said one of the company’s top managers, Francois Bailly. According to him, “Nissan’s future is electric cars, we will not invest in new internal combustion engines.”
Bailey also noted that the transition from cars with traditional engines to fully electric power units will be carried out gradually using Nissan e-Power technology. Recall that in this hybrid power unit, the internal combustion engine has no mechanical connection with the wheels and is used as a gasoline generator to charge the traction battery.
In order to reduce fuel consumption in hybrid cars as much as possible, Nissan aims to increase the thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine by up to 50%. The company has been working on this technology for several years and announced in early 2021 that the e-Power prototype had reached an important milestone during testing.
The fact that Nissan will no longer invest in the development of new diesel engines does not mean that the transition to electric cars will happen instantly. Bailey noted that in some regions, the norms of harmful emissions are not strengthened for one reason or another, for example, in African countries, where Euro-2 norms are still in force. Therefore, Nissan will bring its portfolio in line with regional requirements, so the departure of cars with internal combustion engines will be gradual.
Toyota, Mazda and Subaru believe that the internal combustion engine can be saved by making it run on alternative fuels with minimal harmful emissions. In particular, Toyota is working on the creation of new in-line “fours”, Mazda has returned to the rotary engine project, and Subaru is preparing a new hybrid unit based on the company’s opposed motor. But Honda plans to switch to exclusively electric models in all major markets by 2040.