Nissan unveils new electric vehicle class, plans seven EVs by 2022

Nissan has hit the ground running in 2019, unveiling a series of concept vehicles as well as revealing plans to introduce seven new electric vehicles within the next three years.

Following the announcement of a new version of the Nissan Leaf EV – the Leaf 3.Zero – last week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, senior VP for Nissan North America Denis Le Vot also confirmed the automaker’s plans to add seven more electric cars to its stable by 2022.

The carmaker has copped some criticism in the past from delays in releasing a longer range Leaf with ~60kWh battery that would see it compete with other EVs already on the market, and again it would seem that the automaker is taking baby steps.

Seven EVs by 2022 is not exactly revolutionary. Volkswagen, in comparison, has plans for 50 all-electric models by 2025 across at least its two main brands, VW and Audi.

But to be fair, this number should be considered against the tide of change swept through by EV pioneer Tesla, which has only 3 models on the market to date.

While Nissan is keeping tight-lipped about details of its new range of EVs, it did follow up the Leaf 3.Zero launch at CES2019 with a couple of EV concept reveals at the Detroit show, offering a sneak peek of what we might expect to see in terms of new EVs from Nissan.

Notably, Nissan is making a move away from mainstream car design to carve out a whole new niche in the electric vehicles – what it is referring to as an “elevated sports sedan”.

The Nissan IMs concept, as it is known, is an all-wheel drive, high performance vehicle with a 115kWh battery and dual motors producing 360kW of power and 654Nm torque.

Nissan says it will have over 600km of range, and the design of the IMs concept draws upon the automaker’s “V-motion” design language that it is applying across its 2019 product range.

If the concept launch video is anything to go by, there’s definite shades of sci-fi movie Bladerunner inspiring the design/marketing team at Nissan.

“This bold Nissan IMs concept represents the birth of an entirely new segment of vehicle – an elevated, electrified sports sedan,” said Le Vot at a press conference revealing the IMs concept.

“It makes sense that the first automaker to bring the world a mass-market EV would bring you the future of the electric high-performance sports sedan.

“Fully embracing the three pillars of Nissan Intelligent Mobility – Intelligent Driving, Intelligent Power and Intelligent Integration – the IMs concept moves toward the creation of a sustainable mobile society in the form of EVs, autonomous drive and connectivity technologies,” Le Vot said.

In addition to the IMs concept, Nissan’s luxury brand Infiniti has also launched its first all-electric vehicle concept at the Detroit show, a mid-size SUV it calls the Infiniti QX Inspiration.