How the EV market has changed since Covid

NissanThe CEO said the world has changed a lot since COVID-19 when it comes to electric vehicles – people in different parts of the world now have very different needs for battery-powered vehicles.

This creates a series of challenges for established automakers like Nissan, which has followed a global strategy for decades.

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said in an interview with CNBC’s Martin Soong that while more customers are buying electric vehicles, the pace of adoption varies widely across markets and buyer demand Also different.

“The pace of the world (electric vehicle adoption) has changed. The market has become fragmented and customers are adopting it at different speeds,” Uchida said. “That means we, as a car company, need to change the way we’ve done it in the past.”

Uchida said differences in government incentives, costs, regional competition levels and customer adoption rates combine to create huge differences in the EV markets in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China.

“So what’s important is how much localization we can do in each market,” Uchida said.

Uchida said Nissan’s global scale will give it an advantage as it works to lower the cost of electric vehicle parts such as motors and batteries, which can be shared among many different types of vehicles.

But many of the new Nissan electric cars will no longer be global models. Uchida said that while Nissan has always had regional models to some extent, he believes future Nissan electric vehicles for regions such as the United States or China must be developed in those regions. This will help ensure they meet local customer and regulatory requirements and can be priced appropriately based on each market’s expectations, he said.

For example, electric vehicle customers in China are very price-sensitive, but they also want the latest technology, which they expect from fierce competition among China’s many domestic electric vehicle manufacturers. For Nissan, the challenge in China is competing with long-term global rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp and Toyota Motor Corp. Volkswagen At the same time it strives to keep up with local EV startups in China, such as Nioh, XPengand ideal car – while keeping costs as low as possible.

Uchida noted that Nissan’s history in China and its mature customer base give it some advantages that new entrants may lack, but it still needs to adapt to the breakneck pace of China’s electric vehicle market, where new models appear to be emerging all the time. Released weekly.

“I see huge potential, I still have a lot of customers, all we have to do is accept changes in the market, and we can adjust ourselves according to market conditions,” he said.

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