Revised business plan to bring 30 new Nissans by 2026

Nissan will launch 30 new cars over the next two years, as part of a revised business plan dubbed The Arc.

Sixteen of them will use electrified powertrains, while 60% of Nissan’s current combustion-engined cars will be refreshed.

Six all-new models are promised to be launched in Europe, with Nissan aiming for EVs to comprise 40% of its sales in the region by 2026. 

The Japanese firm is set to significantly ramp up its electrification efforts after 2026, launching an additional 20 hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs.

It expects electrified cars to account for 40% of its global sales mix by 2026 and 60% by 2030 – up by 5% compared with the forecast released in February 2023, which in turn was 5% higher than that published in 2021.

As part of its The Arc plan, Nissan aims to bring the cost of its electric cars into line with its ICE cars by 2030, using next-generation batteries and new development and production techniques.

Key to slashing prices will be the development of electric cars in “families” based around EV-specific architectures, mirroring the approach used by the Renault Group, Stellantis and the Volkswagen Group, among others.

The first car based on a new platform will arrive in 2027, and subsequent models based on it will be four months quicker and half as expensive to develop, according to Nissan.

Platform sharing will also allow the firm to adopt a new modular manufacturing method, reducing production times by 20%.

Nissan said it will also look to group source components to cut costs. This comes after it last week announced plans to collaborate with Honda on the procurement of parts for future EVs.

The firm also believes it can “significantly enhance” nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries, such as those used in the current Ariya electric SUV, to double energy density and halve charging times.

Meanwhile, the cost of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) packs will supposedly be cut by 30% compared with that in the Japanese-market Sakura kei car.

These next-generation batteries will arrive alongside solid-state cells in 2028, Nissan claimed.