By
EWAN KENNEDY
17 August 2009
It's fascinating how quickly times change in the car business, indeed in
life in general. Two of the leading importers of vehicles to Australia,
Mitsubishi and Nissan, are at it hammer and tongs in the electric car
field, a battle that would have been unheard of this time last year. The
race is to be first, which is what all good races are about. First on
the market with a pure electric car, not a petrol-electric hybrid.
On Tuesday I had a good long chat with Dan Thompson, the dynamic young
American who is running the Nissan operation in Australia these days.
That was followed up by lunch with Rob McEniry the next day, he’s an
equally dynamic Aussie guy, who heads up Mitsubishi Motors and is doing
an excellent job of reviving the fortunes of the local branch of the
Japanese company in the post-380 era.
Both men want to be first in Australia in the EV (Electric Vehicle)
field. However, they have set themselves into two different classes in
upcoming competition. Mitsubishi is already promoting its i MiEV as
‘Australia's First Electric Car’ and has just completed an
introductory trip to most capital cities in Australia. Early this year
we were amongst the first to drive the i MiEV and came away impressed by
how normal it felt on the road. To the extent that someone in the
passenger seats may not even pick it as being an electric car.
McEniry is sweating on getting enough cars, and says he is struggling to
get an allocation from the initial batch of i MiEV. He said he would be
delighted to get 20 of them. Indeed, even five to ten would make him
happy. Anything to make the Mitsubishi electric car the first in
Australia seemed to be his attitude. He hopes to have the Mitsubishi i
MiEV on our roads early in 2010.
(Before the pedants step in and complain, Mitsubishi is well aware that
there were electric cars on Australian roads at the turn of the 20th
century. Perhaps the company should be describing i MiEV as, ‘The
first electric car of the modern era’.)
Nissan's Dan Thompson was also keen to talk on the subject of the
just-announced Nissan LEAF. This being the acronym for Nissan's first
mass production electric car, it stands for Leading
Environmentally-friendly Affordable Family-car (nothing modest about
these guys) and is scheduled to be introduced in Japan and the USA in
the third quarter of 2010, with other markets, including Australia,
following shortly afterwards.
Though the Nissan LEAF is further away from on-road reality in Australia
than the Mitsubishi electric car, Thompson aims to sell the car in
relatively large numbers. He is quite definite about not wanting to rush
the car to Australia just to be number one. Nissan is predicting that 10
per cent of all cars sold by 2020 will be EVs.
‘Sell’ isn't necessary the right word to describe Nissan Australia's
plans for the LEAF. The company says it would probably make more sense
to lease them to customers. High initial costs and rapid rate of
development of electric cars make them different to conventional cars on
the roads today. Thompson feels that being able to lease cars would make
potential customers less wary about paying top dollar for a vehicle that
would be a quite a way out of date not long after it was delivered.
Another possibility is for the cars to be sold, but the batteries to be
leased.
Both car company chiefs are aware of the ongoing problems of electric
vehicles. The biggest drawback is restricted driving range and the long
charging times required at home or at the office. However, most people
in Australia only drive relatively short distances and electric cars as
they currently stand would be suited to daily use.
If electric cars are charged in the wee-small hours of the morning, when
demand on the electricity grid is at its lowest, there would be more
than enough power on tap (on plug?) to cope with the charging of tens of
thousands of EVs.
Fast charging machines, that can typically get batteries to 80 per cent
of their capacity in half an hour, would require a new infrastructure to
be set up, probably in shopping centres, parking stations, even
fast-food outlets and perhaps built into parking meters.
Though electric vehicle are often heavily prompted as having zero
emissions, the fact remains that the electricity has to be generated.
And Australia's dirty brown coal doesn't do EVs any favours. Both
Mitsubishi and Nissan say that, in the long term, all electricity has to
come from renewable sources.
I wait with great interest the next stages in the never ending battle
for sales in the dynamic Australian automotive industry, that for
electric cars.
ewan@marque.com.au
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Marque Publishing Company
