aidenjac01: Renault-Nissan CEO still committed to $5.6 billion electric vehicle investment

Monday, 20 June 2011

Renault-Nissan CEO still committed to $5.6 billion electric vehicle investment

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Nissan, Renault

Carlos Ghosn at the Nissan Leaf battery plant groundbreaking - Click above for high-res image gallery

It's no secret that Renault-Nissan chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn remains bullish on the future of electric vehicles. In fact, there's hardly a time when Mr. Ghosn talks in public that he doesn't express his complete enthusiasm for battery-powered vehicles. The CEO's latest speech at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA was certainly no exception. After the speech, Autopia vividly described the Alliance's CEO like this:

Carlos Ghosn is either a brilliant visionary or crazy as a loon. The CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance is easily the auto industry's biggest advocate of electric vehicles, possessed of an enthusiasm bordering on fanaticism. Others may speak with louder voices, but no one is placing a bigger bet on cars with cords.

But there's reason to describe Mr. Ghosn in such a way. For example, when the CEO boldly stated:

There is no other car company committing the massive investment in electric cars like us. None. A lot of people are saying they'll come out with an electric car. But they're saying 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000. At this time, no one can match us.

Ghosn backed up this statement by reconfirming that Renault-Nissan, unlike any of the other automotive conglomerates, is investing $5.6 billion to have the capacity to build half a million electric vehicles and batteries at 11 factories in eight countries by the end of 2013. With that kind of investment, it's not surprising that Ghosn pushes so hard for electric vehicles. Click here for Autopia's full Q&A with Ghosn.

Gallery: Nissan Leaf Battery Plant Groundbreaking