Nissan criticizes Olympic committee for choosing Bmw as automotive partner

In fact I belive it was a fair selection. They could pick Jaguar but they din't.

Can't believe they are not picking some electric car.... So politically incorrect.

From dannyjeffers below:

"The simple truth is that BMW outbid Nissan to win the deal. LOCOG has traded a fat cash contribution for a once in a generation chance to install an electric vehicle infrastructure.

So much for the 2012 Olympic ‘legacy’. "

Nissan has been talking a lot of smack lately between this, and the ongoing verbal sparring with Porsche.

I submit that it is the Renault guys talking the smack. It is not in line with the Japanese culture.

Carlos Ghosn, would you like some cheese with that whine?

Anyone who thinks this decision makes sense needs to do a little research.

From Autocar.uk

The news that BMW has won the bid to become to official vehicle supplier to the 2012 London Olympics is a serious disappointment.
Not because there’s likely to be much wrong with the next-generation 1-series and 3-series, but because the Blue Propeller has succeeded in crowding out a much more innovative rival.

Nissan was one of the 2012 bidders, promising to supply a fleet of 4000 vehicles, at least 2000 of which would have been the Nissan LEAF electric hatch. Had Nissan won, French electricity supplier EDF would have helped install charging points through the capital.

The upshot would have been a huge boost for electric car infrastructure in the capital – a city with some of the worst diesel-fired pollution in Europe.

The infrastructure would have lasted long after the games had departed, opening the way for electric delivery vehicles and taxis as well as releasing 2000 barely-used LEAFs onto the second hand market.

As Autocar reports, 2012 sources actively dismissed the idea of using electric vehicles as unreliable and unproven.

Really? I drive the LEAF prototype last month and it was hugely impressive. Moreover the car’s standard range would have coped with five return journeys from central London to the Olympic site on a single charge.

And with the use of three-phase charging points, the re-charge time would have been just a couple of hours.

Worse still, Nissan is considering building the LEAF in Sunderland, partly because Nissan will be building LEAF batteries at the plant. Let’s hope the chances of building the LEAF in Britain hasn’t been harmed.

So we could have had 2000 UK-built electric vehicles running around at the 2012 games. Indeed, Boris Johnson wanted to see a mass take-up of electric vehicles in 2012, but it seems the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) are making decisions that affect the future of the capital, not the democratically elected London Mayor.

The simple truth is that BMW outbid Nissan to win the deal. LOCOG has traded a fat cash contribution for a once in a generation chance to install an electric vehicle infrastructure.

So much for the 2012 Olympic ‘legacy’.

I'm sorry, but look at the leaf, if that car is going to be the public's first exposure to a "mass produced" electric vehicle, then our hopes of an electric future are doomed. Yes electric cars need publicity, but I don't think the publicity of this car would set back an electric "revolution" 5 years. Look how horrendous the first gen prius's were, hell they still aren't very pretty but at least they look better now. When people think hybrid cars it's unfortunate that they think of these ugly nerd mobiles. If they decided to buy 2000 Tesla Model S vehicles, then that would have been a great step forwards. Until then, they may as well go ahead with a "fat cash contribution", for at least bmw holds performance through efficiency as their goal... which also is an Olympic view point.

*but I think publicizing this car would set back*

Sour grapes...

I loved those Mini trikes BMW provided for the 2008 Olympics in China.

Upturned noses of the comittee, also BMW must have bribed them !

Really stupid move by London, but I'm not surprised they chose a European brand over an Asian one. That's the way they roll over there. Wait until gas goes up again.

Its not the cars, its the money. That is how $PON$OR$ are selected.

The Olympic Committee is one of the most Supercilious, OverInflated Egoed group of Clowns i have ever had the chance to research. All decisions are based solely on how is benefits the Committee financially and or Influentially. Nothing of the Original Olympic Spirit is left in the Committee, today it is purely a Capital Generating Entity.