Nissan Reexamines its Electrification Timeline

Photo Source: NISSAN

Nissan is considering the potential for an electric pickup truck but is in no hurry to chase rivals into launching an electric model, Nissan North America’s Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer Ponz Pandikuthira confirmed at the 2024 New York Auto Show. Even though the Japanese automaker has displayed a wide array of electric concepts, including a wildly-powered electric reinterpretation of the iconic Nissan GT-R called Hyper Force, a pickup is conspicuous by its absence. That, the manufacturer claims, is no accident. 

Nissan is no stranger to electrification, of course. The company’s Leaf arguably created the affordable electric vehicle segment when it launched over a decade ago. However, that does not mean Nissan is planning to rush into all-electric trucks, too. Indeed, while other automakers have set out their flag when it comes to electrifying the lucrative pickup market, Nissan is playing it coy even with hybrid options. 

Where the Ford F-150 Lightning is available, while Chevrolet and others have electric trucks in the pipeline, Nissan’s Frontier remains resolutely gasoline-only at present. That said, on April 1, 2024, news broke that the Frontier will receive a plug-in hybrid and an electric variant, but those versions will only emerge for the next-generation of the vehicle.

Nissan’s Plans for an Electric Truck

“The Nissan Frontier (the automaker’s midsize pickup truck) customer does not want an EV,” Pandikuthira noted. That is in no small part down to the limitations of range, especially when towing. After all, the ability to tow loads, such as trailers and boats, is a pivotal requirement for pickup truck owners, yet doing so can roughly halve the typical driving range of an electric vehicle’s battery. 

Rather than push ahead with a compromise today, Nissan’s strategy could be a twofold one as it maneuvers a unique approach to electrification. On the one hand, there is Nissan e-Power, the company’s branding for its series hybrids. To clarify, a combustion engine acts as an onboard generator, combined with a battery pack–usually smaller than one housed in a fully-electric model–driving electric motors. 

Nissan e-Power has been popular in select markets where it has launched already, particularly where customers are not necessarily prepared to make the leap to full electrification. “E-Power is really suited for a vehicle like Kicks and Rogue,” Pandikuthira stated – a vehicle that will spend most of its time in urban environments along with stop-and-go traffic, with maybe only 30 percent of the time being highway driving.

Batteries Influence the Long Game

Further down the line, Nissan is pinning its electric vehicle hopes on All-Solid-State Battery (ASSB) technology. A successor to the current lithium-ion and similar battery packs utilized in electrified vehicles today (2024), All-Solid-State batteries promise to be more inexpensive while providing a third of the charging time and up to twice the power density. In short, an All-Solid-State battery-equipped electric vehicle could coax double the range out of the same physical size battery as a current electric vehicle is equipped with.

The current dilemma with All-Solid-State Battery technology is that Nissan is still in the early stages when it comes to production. In the meantime, Nissan plans to continue pushing its current truck, the Frontier, which has evolved in recent years. Even though it might have debuted as a functional workhorse, market demand and customer interest have seen it expand into more sophisticated equipment and features, as well as court more lifestyle drivers.

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