NEW YORK — Along with offering ideas on a future Xterra whereas on the New York Worldwide Auto Present, Nissan Americas Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer Ponz Pandikuthira additionally talked with us a bit about EVs, and extra particularly mannequin strains and nameplates. We have seen a couple of methods starting from nearly utterly new and parallel mannequin strains (corresponding to Hyundai’s Ioniqs and Kia’s EV#s), to reusing outdated names on nonetheless equally parallel fashions (corresponding to Chevy’s Equinox, Blazer and Silverado EVs), and naturally blends of the 2. Thus far, Nissan has gone with the separate mannequin route with Leaf and Ariya, however that might not be as a lot the case sooner or later.
Pandikuthira famous that now, customers do not have as a lot curiosity of their EVs being some utterly distinctive, assertion piece. As such, each Nissan and Infiniti will probably be including EVs to current nameplates extra so than completely new mannequin strains. He did not say whether or not they would merely be electrical variants of current inner combustion fashions, or one thing like Chevy’s mannequin, although. However he did be aware that the Nissan Ariya was, at one level, thought of as a attainable Murano successor.
It definitely would make sense to us. The Ariya is a distinct-looking crossover, and one with a really upscale inside, each key tenets of the Murano from that mannequin’s introduction within the early 2000s. Plus, the Murano is in fairly dire want of a alternative, as the present era dates again practically a decade in the past to the 2015 mannequin yr. The rationale Pandikuthira gave for the Ariya resolution was that the crossover represented sufficient of a change in Nissan’s EV know-how and capabilities that the model wished to spotlight that with a novel nameplate.
Nissan will not be ruling out the opportunity of new EV-only fashions, although. Identical to with Ariya, Pandikuthira advised us that if a deliberate automotive is exclusive sufficient, the corporate will nonetheless be open to a brand new line. However count on extra, say, electrical Rogues and Altimas than completely new names.
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