Nissan Admits LEAF Can't Stand On Own Merits - Needs At Least 5 Years Of Subsidies

Nissan Motor Co said on Tuesday that the company needs up to 5 years of support from various governments in the form of subsidies to build a sustainable market for electric vehicles.

Nissan, which is introducing its Leaf all-electric car in December, needs government incentives to trigger volume so it can bring down the cost of the car, said Carlos Tavares, Nissan's executive vice president and head of U.S. operations.

"We will need to be supported three to five years," Tavares said in an interview. "We expect that within that time frame we will have enough volume to generate the appropriate cost reduction which will make these subsidies something that we can live without."




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thstone - 7/28/2010 11:39:00 AM

+2 Boost

As expected...

uaw_lax - 7/28/2010 12:21:22 PM

-3 Boost

Buy a Volt. You do not need charging stations everywhere to take the fam on vacation or get to work.

uaw_lax - 7/29/2010 1:23:51 AM

-1 Boost

YOU paid for nothing.

M35MT - 7/29/2010 12:57:32 PM

+1 Boost

uaw puppet

speed123 - 7/28/2010 12:54:19 PM

+5 Boost

All the cars like this will need subsidies. So what is the big surprise.

quizz - 7/28/2010 12:58:26 PM

+4 Boost

What is the replacement cost of the Li battery? Obviously, you'd change it at year 7 of the 8 year warranty (or at 99,000 miles) no matter what and just sell the car to avoid hits to re-sale value.

Agent009 - 7/28/2010 2:15:45 PM

0 Boost

Unknown at this time.

topneuro - 7/28/2010 3:28:28 PM

+2 Boost

If you take the 1997-2003 Toyota RAV4 EV as an example, electric vehicles have no resale value problems. Total 1575 made from 1997 to 2003, as of 2010 there are 800 units still in use, because lease and owners rebelled and refused to return them, still like the GM EV1, Toyota destroyed the remaining. Some RAV4 EVs have achieved over 150,000 miles on the original battery pack. Try to buy an used one now and you would pay top dollar.