Highlights:
- Nissan launches electric SUV named Ariya
- The company even changed its logo
- Nissan plans to sell just 30,000 units of Ariya globally in 1st year
On Wednesday the Japanese car manufacturer, Nissan Motor Company unveiled its all-electric SUV and its first all new global unit in 5 years in the hope that it will symbolise its road to recovery from scandals of over a year and a huge decline into incurring losses.
However, Nissan does not want to get too ambitious with the model and the initial sales plans are modest as people with knowledge of the matter said that the vehicle will do little to lift Nissan’s bottom line.
Ariya will feature Nissan’s latest self-driving technology and will have a driving range which could be compared to that of Tesla models. Ariya will sell at a price tag of around Yen 5 million of $ 47,000.
This possible price tag makes it an up-scale version of X-Trail SUV which is Nissan’s most-selling global model knows as Rogue in North America.
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Chief Engineer of Ariya, Hikaru Nakajima said, “We were under orders from management not to make any compromises with this model as it represents where the company stands today and will lead to the Nissan of the future,” to the reporters.
The electric-car market is dominated by Tesla and as the competition is growing from other automakers such as Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and more, Nissan’s plan of their own electric SUV, Nissan wants to sell just 30,000 units of the car in the first year globally.
“It’s a bit underwhelming,” said one source who was involved in the product’s development, referring to the sales target.
“Is this going to be a vehicle that brings a halo effect to the brand or not?” the source said.
The company says the sale of Ariya could begin from mid-2021 in Japan but the timeline for the United States of America, China, and Europe were not disclosed.
A report said, “A third person said the automaker plans to produce 40,000 units in Japan in 2021, eventually ramping up annual production to 100,000, adding that it also plans to build the model in China.”
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By comparison, just last year, Nissan sold more than 50,00,000 or 5 million units of X-Trail and Rogue, together, all around the globe, to put it into perspective, Tesla Model 3 sedan which is also an electric vehicle sold more than 3,00,000 units last year.
The report said, “Focused on expanding in emerging markets, Nissan let its vehicle portfolio age but the strategy has tarnished the automaker’s brand, pummelled sales and sapped profitability over the past two years.”
This is why the success of Ariya is so much important for the company, which is also the first EV model in a decade from Nissan after the Leaf hatchback which made its mark as the first mass-market Electric Vehicle in the world.
Ariya will compete with Model Y SUV Crossover, which Tesla is selling since mArch this year and start at $ 50,000. Ariya will also compete against Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV which will come out in later part of 2020 and is also expected to be priced at $ 50,000.
