[Nissan Kicks News]

Sitting at the top of electric vehicles sales is Nissan and Renault, neither of which are willing to step down, thus their push for even more electric vehicles along with Mitsubishi.

According to Bloomberg, the trio plans to introduce 12 new full-electric vehicles by 2022 and they plan to develop more cost efficient batteries with even more range. They even have a plan drawn out, called Alliance 2022 it details their six year plan and theuir ultimate goal of establishing themselves as leaders in the “electrification, autonomous and connected-car technologies”.

That’s right, why end at electrification when they can improve autonomous technologies. Included in the plans are 40 models with varying levels of autonomy like adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. Perhaps following in the footsteps of Tesla, out of those 40 models at least one will be fully autonomous, meaning human intervention is won’t be required.

“We are going to use the scale we have to build more competitive advantages for the future,” said group Chairman Carlos Ghosn in an interview. “The big guys are going to have a big advantage in this situation.”

And he’s not wrong because a large alliance equates to more money allotted to research and development.
Though full autonomy won’t happen for years to come, perhaps we’ll see an all-electric Nissan Kicks in the future.

 

[Kicker]

If that does happen, it'll be with the next generation Kicks with an updated body and cabin. But would it not be better to produce an EV dedicated platform and have the three giants share one EV specific platform?

 

[ontherun]

If that does happen, it'll be with the next generation Kicks with an updated body and cabin. But would it not be better to produce an EV dedicated platform and have the three giants share one EV specific platform?

car makers have a trend of using new vehicles and platforms for EV's so that might be the case here
and biggest question out of that would be how suitable is the Kicks to be an EV?

 

[TwoFace]

NO model was specifically listed and I assume electrification encompasses all forms including hybrid. We're more likely to see a hybrid Nissan Kicks in the model's next update than a full electric power train.

 

[ontherun]

If it means they will pull the same hybrid powertrain from the Rogue hybrid and drop it into the Kicks hybrid, then i can see that being the case. At least with the Rogue having that option now, there's a higher chance the Kicks will get it.

 

[Kicker]

Agreed, Nissan is more likely to come out with an all electric leaf than a kicks. But hybrids are fine as well, especially as a way to ease skeptics into electrification. I for one am afraid of getting stranded in an all electric vehicle and would prefer hybrids.

 

[ontherun]

With their involvement in Formula E this might mean a next generation GT-R or some performance coupe with an electric of hybrid powertrain. Should be some interesting times with all this tech and development happening in the background, maybe some of that will trickle down here.