How Profitable Will The Nissan Leaf Electric Car Be? If on the open market any item for sale does not make a profit over its cost of production then it is deemed to be non-commercial, so where does that leave the Nissan Leaf electric car? Among the well quoted reasons for producing electric cars are to have less polluting cars on the road by replacing them with alternative fuel cleaner power units, at present the market leader in full time production in the UK is the Toyota Prius hybrid petrol/electric vehicle with the Nissan Leaf likely to be the first all electric car on the road in the UK.
Since the movement for a cleaner environment via less carbon gas emissions began motor trade engineers have improved their fossil powered units tremendously.
We now not only have much cleaner diesel and petrol engines, which in some cases qualify for a zero rate road tax by emitting below 100g/km of carbon gas emissions, but also achieving 60+mpg which, if every other vehicle matched these figures, it would mean a huge drop in oil imports.
One of the big issues overhanging the electric car market right now is their financial viability.
As quoted above, fossil fuelled cars have the mileage range benefit, nationwide refuelling set up for the mass market and a huge advantage in price differential.
Who are the buyers of today's Nissan Leaf likely to be, possibly public bodies such as councils, if that is the case why should local taxpayers subsidise the development of this niche private sector? As far as Nissan are concerned the electric car sector will continue to be a niche sector until 2020 and possibly well beyond as their plans are to continue production of petrol and diesel powered cars "for decades" to come; even by 2020 Nissan's prediction of the electric car market occupying a 10% share of the market is described as "hugely optimistic" by many of its rivals.
Nissan are reputedly in this niche sector for the long game, having invested 2bn Euros over the last 4 years which has been matched by their business partner Renault, making a huge commitment to date which is promised to be an ongoing factor; they are viewing their Nissan Leaf as a trail blazer which is due to be followed by 4 other electric cars over the next couple of years plus at least one from their Infinity range.
With Nissan viewing the profitability of the electric car market over the long term it is understood they are not overly concerned by the single profitability of their Leaf model.
How well does that situation sit with the current position that electric cars cannot be sold viably on the open market without taxpayer subsidies? With the price of an average UK family car costing £15k compared to a real price of £30k for a Nissan Leaf there is likely to be one showroom the average motorist will not be visiting, that is just too big a differential to go green in these times.
Bill Williams
Since the movement for a cleaner environment via less carbon gas emissions began motor trade engineers have improved their fossil powered units tremendously.
We now not only have much cleaner diesel and petrol engines, which in some cases qualify for a zero rate road tax by emitting below 100g/km of carbon gas emissions, but also achieving 60+mpg which, if every other vehicle matched these figures, it would mean a huge drop in oil imports.
One of the big issues overhanging the electric car market right now is their financial viability.
As quoted above, fossil fuelled cars have the mileage range benefit, nationwide refuelling set up for the mass market and a huge advantage in price differential.
Who are the buyers of today's Nissan Leaf likely to be, possibly public bodies such as councils, if that is the case why should local taxpayers subsidise the development of this niche private sector? As far as Nissan are concerned the electric car sector will continue to be a niche sector until 2020 and possibly well beyond as their plans are to continue production of petrol and diesel powered cars "for decades" to come; even by 2020 Nissan's prediction of the electric car market occupying a 10% share of the market is described as "hugely optimistic" by many of its rivals.
Nissan are reputedly in this niche sector for the long game, having invested 2bn Euros over the last 4 years which has been matched by their business partner Renault, making a huge commitment to date which is promised to be an ongoing factor; they are viewing their Nissan Leaf as a trail blazer which is due to be followed by 4 other electric cars over the next couple of years plus at least one from their Infinity range.
With Nissan viewing the profitability of the electric car market over the long term it is understood they are not overly concerned by the single profitability of their Leaf model.
How well does that situation sit with the current position that electric cars cannot be sold viably on the open market without taxpayer subsidies? With the price of an average UK family car costing £15k compared to a real price of £30k for a Nissan Leaf there is likely to be one showroom the average motorist will not be visiting, that is just too big a differential to go green in these times.
Bill Williams
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