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 traces and nameplates. We have seen a couple of methods starting from nearly fully new and parallel mannequin traces (reminiscent of Hyundai’s Ioniqs and Kia’s EV#s), to reusing previous names on nonetheless equally parallel fashions (reminiscent of 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 will not be as a lot the case sooner or later.
Pandikuthira famous that now, shoppers do not have as a lot curiosity of their EVs being some fully distinctive, assertion piece. As such, each Nissan and Infiniti might be including EVs to present nameplates extra so than completely new mannequin traces. He did not say whether or not they would merely be electrical variants of present inner combustion fashions, or one thing like Chevy’s mannequin, although. However he did word that the Nissan Ariya was, at one level, thought-about as a doable 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 substitute, as the present era dates again almost a decade in the past to the 2015 mannequin yr. The explanation Pandikuthira gave for the Ariya choice was that the crossover represented sufficient of a change in Nissan’s EV expertise and capabilities that the model needed to spotlight that with a novel nameplate.
Nissan will not be ruling out the opportunity of new EV-only fashions, although. Similar to with Ariya, Pandikuthira instructed us that if a deliberate automotive is exclusive sufficient, the corporate will nonetheless be open to a brand new line. However anticipate extra, say, electrical Rogues and Altimas than completely new names.
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