Bump.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91304Z20130204
Quote:
The tepid response to EVs also pushed Nissan's high-profile chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, perhaps the industry's most outspoken proponent of battery cars, to announce in December a major strategic shift toward more mainstream gasoline-electric hybrids, which overcome many of the shortcomings of pure EVs.
The move was widely seen as a tacit acknowledgement by Ghosn that his all-or-nothing, multibillion-dollar bet on EVs is falling far short of his ambition to sell hundreds of thousands of battery-powered Nissan Leafs.
Instead, Nissan plans to follow rival Toyota Motor Co, the world's largest purveyor of hybrids, which now is poised to leapfrog pure EVs altogether to pursue what might be the next big green-tech breakthrough: pollution- and petroleum-free fuel-cell cars that convert hydrogen to electricity.
|
The article brings up an interesting point -- fleet fuel economy standards are going to force either more EVs on the road (which the public, to this point, has shown little or no desire to own) or a new technological breakthrough before 2020, or most automakers are going to be paying pretty hefty fines in the US and EU.