nissan ghosn
Bruce Newton24 Mar 2016
NEWS

NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: EV's time is coming

Renault-Nissan chief says global warming crisis will trigger the rise of electric vehicles

Electric vehicle evangelist Carlos Ghosn continues to insist the takeover of global roads by EVs remains inevitable despite the slow level of current take-up.

Speaking at the opening of the New York auto show, the Renault-Nissan alliance boss said the growing global emissions crisis would have a dramatic impact on the car industry’s traditional reliance on the internal combustion engine.

“We have not even seen the beginning of the story on emissions,” Ghosn said.

“Wait until the emission restrictions come to the table and we are going to see the size of the effort we are going to have to do.

“And for me the only viable existing technology which allows that is electrification and particularly the electric car.”

Ghosn predicted the transportation industry would have to slash CO2 emissions if there was to be any chance of average global temperatures increases being restricted to two degrees Celsius, rather than the four degrees science is predicting it is headed for on a ‘business as usual’ basis.

Just how tough the crackdown on the transportation industry will be is likely to come clearer at the UN-backed ‘COP 22’ conference in Morocco in November, Ghosn predicted.

“Everybody said we are in a zone nobody understands, what does it mean, but we know it is bad,” Ghosn said.  “Everyone is saying plus four needs to come down to plus two.

“Transportation is responsible for 17 per cent of the CO2 emissions. There is no way we are going to reach anything like two degrees without a substantial reduction in CO2 from the transportation industry.

“And the only obvious known technology that will achieve that is massive electrification. There is no other way.”

With Ghosn cracking the whip, Nissan was the first major manufacturer to back EVs when it launched the mass market LEAF back in 2010. Since then it has amassed 200,000 sales.

But EVs have not gained global acceptance the way Ghosn expected and the company has also embraced hybrids as a step-change technology.

Stubbornly low petrol prices, few government subsidies to encourage EV purchases and lack of recharging infrastructure have all worked against electric vehicles.

But Ghosn says the need to urgently address the global warming crisis will ensure the situation changes dramatically and quickly.

“We were the only one (car manufacturer) … but every one is now coming with electric cars. And if they aren’t coming with electric cars they are coming with another technology, which is fuel cells.

“Governments in order to encourage the industry to continue in this direction are going to finally have to provide the infrastructure. Today the main problem of electric cars is people complaining there is no infrastructure.”

During the same speech and following Q&A sessions, Ghosn also said Renault-Nissan would launch at least 10 vehicles with significant autonomous capability and advanced connectivity by 2020.

These cars would encourage EV adoption he argued.

“Those cars will be far more connected than those on the road today, they will be much more personal space and an extension of ourselves just as our smartphone is today.

“And the EV is the perfect platform for autonomous drive and connected vehicle technology. That will in turn accelerate the adoption of EVs.”

Ghosn stressed that post-2020 autonomous cars would offer the driver the opportunity to drive or relinquish control, but would not be driverless cars as per the Google car.

He listed three key capabilities Renault-Nissan’s autonomous vehicles would offer in 2020:

- The ability to take control of driving in traffic jams
- The ability to change lanes on the highway independently of the driver when danger, such as an obstruction, is sensed
- The ability to handle all city driving

Ghosn conceded that government regulation would have to change for autonomous technology to be successful.

“Obviously for autonomous drive to be effective the regulatory frame has to evolve, because as long as you need to keep – by regulation – your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road then autonomous driving has absolutely no advantage.”

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