YOKOHAMA, Japan — In a push to promote less-costly, better-performing electrified autos, Nissan is planning a next-generation electrical powertrain lineup that can debut in 2026.
The brand new expertise will allow Nissan to attain worth parity between its internal-combustion choices and its e-Energy hybrid choices in 2026 and its full-electric and gasoline-burning autos in 2030, executives mentioned at a briefing Wednesday.
The advance will give Nissan an built-in powertrain unit that’s 10 p.c smaller in measurement and prices 30 p.c much less to supply. Will probably be used throughout full-electric choices and e-Energy autos, changing a patchwork of various powertrains presently in use.
The brand new vary will streamline product growth, whereas reducing prices and enhancing efficiency, Senior Vice President Toshihiro Hirai mentioned throughout a preview of the expertise at Nissan’s world headquarters.
Key to the technique is rising commonality and lowering complexity.
“For brand new electrical autos, we want to scale back variety,” mentioned Hirai, head of Nissan’s powertrain and EV engineering division.
He mentioned the powertrains will begin to debut in 2024 or 2025 and scale as much as mass manufacturing in 2026.
Hirai didn’t say what autos the powertrain models will debut in. However the techniques may be deployed throughout all the things from Japanese-market minivehicles to the American-size D-segment and above.
In 2026, Nissan will add 4 new EVs to the U.S. market made for the Nissan and Infiniti manufacturers at its Canton, Miss., plant. A next-generation Nissan Leaf can be anticipated in that time-frame.
Whereas Nissan has not dedicated to bringing its e-Energy hybrid setup to the U.S. market, Hirai advised that the powertrain could have functions in body-on-frame autos, resembling vehicles.
Nissan calls the brand new setup “x-in-1” as a result of it integrates a number of electrical drivetrain elements right into a single module, changing a cumbersome, bolt-on strategy utilized in right now’s autos.
The three-in-1 setup is geared towards full EVs and combines the motor, inverter and reducer right into a module enclosed in a single casing. The 5-in-1 setup shall be utilized in Nissan’s e-Energy variants and mix the motor, inverter, generator, reducer and increaser.
The reducer slows the revolutions per minute of the electrical motor to a velocity that can flip the axle and wheels. The increaser hastens the revolutions of the e-Energy’s gasoline engine to spin the generator that recharges the system’s battery. In each the EV and e-Energy setups, solely the electrical motor supplies the mechanical power that powers the automobiles.
The brand new strategy permits for extra compact, less expensive packaging.
Nissan declined to reveal who will make the person elements. However the remaining modules shall be assembled by Nissan-affiliated transmission provider Jatco.
Hirai mentioned Nissan will possible produce key elements in-house at decrease volumes. However at increased volumes above 200,000, Nissan will possible search suppliers to supply them.
The x-in-1 powertrains have been developed independently by Nissan with out enter from its alliance companions Renault or Mitsubishi, mentioned Akihiro Shibuya, Alliance director for powertrain and EV engineering. The companions may very well be provided the expertise, however nothing is determined, he mentioned.
Nissan’s powertrain announcement got here every week after it introduced plans for a extra fast transfer to world electrification. Final week, it mentioned it expects to get 44 p.c of its world gross sales from EV or e-Energy autos by its 2026 fiscal yr, up from an earlier imaginative and prescient of 40 p.c introduced in 2021.
COO Ashwani Gupta mentioned Nissan will simplify powertrain designs and consolidate platforms to chop value and weight. Within the 2020 fiscal yr, for instance, Nissan had 49 powertrains, masking 4 electrified and 45 internal-combustion choices. By 2030, that powertrain portfolio shall be whittled down to 3 electrified and 16 fuel-burning ones.
Nissan expects to attain value parity between its e-Energy and internal-combustion choices partly by adopting the brand new modular powertrain expertise.
Additional value discount will come from slashing the quantity of uncommon earth supplies utilized in motor magnets. The upcoming motors will use lower than 1 p.c of the uncommon earths that have been used within the first-generation Nissan Leaf EV in 2011, Nissan mentioned.
Furthermore, Nissan will enhance the techniques’ total effectivity by adopting silicon-carbide semiconductors in inverters to scale back total measurement and vitality loss.
Wanting additional forward, Hirai mentioned Nissan will have the ability to obtain value parity between full EVs and inside combustion in 2030 due to the introduction of solid-state batteries.
Nissan expects to convey these superior energy packs to market in 2028 and attain mass-market scale in 2030. Hirai mentioned solid-state batteries will allow additional value reductions partly as a result of they’ll have the ability to ditch the usage of costly nickel and cobalt supplies.
Nissan additionally expects the general manufacturing course of to be cheaper for strong state.