The electric vehicle (EV) bandwagon is advancing expeditiously, and it looks like Nissan’s luxury brand, Infiniti, will be next to hop on. The automaker's officials plan to electrify their 10-model fleet after 2021, said Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa.
The EV proposal was issued on Jan. 16 at the annual Automotive News World Congress, following a record-breaking year for U.S. sales at Infiniti, which sold more than 153,000 cars in 2017.
The plan will not automatically turn Infiniti’s fleet to zero emission electric vehicles, but it will mark the start of the brand’s stage-by-stage implementation of fully electric motors across all vehicle models.
Starting in 2021, the Infiniti lineup will comprise of a mix of all-electric models and cars installed with a new hybrid concept engine known as e-POWER.
Infiniti officials will use the e-POWER hybrid technology as the foundation to later shift into fully electric motors across all of the brand’s models. The unique hybrid engine utilizes a gasoline generator that constantly charges the electric motor, eliminating the need to plug the car into a power source.
Currently, Nissan’s Versa Note, also known as a “series hybrid,” is the only model running on an e-POWER engine, though many Infiniti models will soon be equipped with the hybrid technology by 2021.
While electric cars are still relatively new to the auto industry, Infiniti’s plan was announced on the heels of promised EV fleets from the likes of Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Volvo, which all vowed to deliver new and improved electric vehicles in the next decade.
