Summary
- Nissan’s pride and denial hindered merger talks, sources say
- Honda pushed Nissan for deeper cuts to jobs, factory capacity, sources say
- Nissan unwilling to consider factory closures, sources say
- Honda’s proposal to make Nissan a subsidiary caused tensions, sources say
Right, which is why I said they should’ve focused on price and reliability. They’re not going to lead on battery tech, so they should experiment with things like sodium ion batteries, which are much cheaper, have less fire risk, and they don’t need the range anyway for a commuter/around town car.
Find a niche and fill it.
Sodium ion is a dead end for ev. Heavy and not even remotely close to energy dense enough. It never will be.
I thought it was something like 75% as energy dense? If you’re targeting a commuter with a max needed range of 150 miles, it seems more than sufficient.
It’s not going to solve the range anxiety problem, but it’s inexpensive, which is perfect for a cheap, around-town second car, which is precisely what the Leaf should be.
Usability wise for energy storage by weight, it’s more like 150wh compared to 250. They also don’t handle moving around as well, which is bad for vehicles. Then because sodium is a larger ion, they’re also always going to take up more space. So heavier and bigger makes them even less power efficient to move a vehicle and means heavier suspension and more tire wear.
I think those tradeoffs are fine assuming a huge cost difference. I’m under the impression that sodium ion batteries cost something like 1/3 of a lithium ion battery. And since the battery is most of the cost of a car, a commuter could be very cost competitive.
I don’t know about cold weather efficiency, but honestly, most of that 150 mile range is to account for winter range drop. A commuter only really needs about 75 miles usable range year round.
People would put up with a lot for an attractive price.
Charging is a huge hassle in a big city where everyone lives in apartments but 75 miles a day would be enough. People living out of big cities where they can charge at home often have to travel over 75 miles a day.
Yeah, this is assuming you can plug in at home or at work. My commute is 25 miles each way, which is about as far as I’d consider going, and I can charge at home, so it would totally work for me and the people stuck in traffic with me.
Of course, then you’re also stuck needing to have two vehicles, because unlike someone who lives in New York city and may go a decade without leaving, you likely make a trip or have to got to a few places that would ad up to over 150 miles fairly often. Often enough that you’d need a vehicle for it.
We’re going to have two vehicles regardless, and that’s pretty common for families and couples. The average cars per household is around 2, and above that in many states.
The Leaf wouldn’t be targeting single vehicle households, but family units where one is a dedicated commuter and the other is a family car.