I have been indulging my fetish for electrified vehicles this week, heading for sunny Barcelona to see what happens when the powertrain and various other bits of Nissan’s Leaf, a personal favourite, are stuffed into the NV200 van, coming soon to a New York taxi rank near you.
The result is pretty good. Nissan has sold over 110,000 Leafs now, with about 25,000 of those here in Europe, and reckons that, with those having driven over 700m kilometres, “we know more about how real [EV] customers drive than anyone”. So the automaker is now painting a target around European van operators whose vehicles typically do 120km (75 miles) a day and who can recharge the batteries overnight (or between deliveries with a purpose built fast charger). They reckon the e-NV200 will suit 35% of the market, potentially 200,000 customers across Europe.
Go deeper with GlobalData
As a van, there are no apparent compromises. A big load area and, at 770kg, slightly more payload than the diesel equivalent sold here. Side-hinged, assymetric, ‘French’ rear doors or optional top hinged tailgate for the van versions. A nice solid bulkhead and plenty of equipment – standard or optional according to market – including rear view camera (standard for the UK) and the CarWings telematics that let you check charging and pre-programme the HVAC for a cool or warm cab, according to season. The UK will also get a Combi version with three folding rear seats and Europe also gets a fully trimmed Evalia version that would make a good family haul-all (there are various ways of getting two or three full size bicycles in) or dual-purpose small business/soccermommobile.
It’s also great to drive, scooting off the line with all that maximum torque available from rest and you can get from one set of lights to the next barely touching the brakes thanks to strong regenerative action which can be switched in, a la Leaf, using the gear selector. Aircon, satnav, Bluetooth, space for the cans of coke, copy of The Sun – it’s all either standard or optional. Nissan has trialled a fleet with city-based British Gas heating engineers here in the UK and claims the drivers did not want to give them back, and I can see why. We’ll monitor sales with interest.
While I’m on EVs, Kia has started production of another new one I’m keen to get my mitts on – the Soul EV. This will be the Hyundai affiliate’s first foray into the EV market outside its home market and, again, it will be interesting to see how it does with what looks like a good rival for the Leaf. And, if you wanted to try an EV before you buy, a certain Mr Hertz now has the Chevy Spark EV available to rent in the electrified vehicle-friendly state of California.
In other news, we learned this week that Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover is planning to make engines as well as cars at its Chinese joint venture. While it still buys in engines, it is building a new plant here in England to make new in-house-designed motors and it appears, reading between the lines, that the Chinese plant would initially assemble parts imported from there and gradually ramp up local content to the point where the entire powerplant is 100% Chinese – just about every supplier you could need is already there, after all.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
