Nissan goes down Electric Avenue: Tokyo show 2007

Predicting the future is never easy, but Nissan’s future product planner, Tom Lane, reckons it’s proving harder than ever these days.

‘I’ve been with Nissan for 16 years and I’ve never known a period quite like it,’ says Lane. ‘The US consumer is not particularly motivated by fuel economy right now, but if the oil price climbs any more that could change within the space of a month, and trying to predict when that might happen is next to impossible.’

The answer at Nissan is the ongoing development of a number of solutions for reducing CO2 emissions, including all-electric cars, which could be with us sooner than you might expect.

‘Our current thinking is that some countries will adopt a zero-CO2 limit for city centres,’ says Lane. ‘So we plan to introduce an all-electric car by 2009/10. I predict that they will become commonplace by 2015 thanks to new battery technology.’

But Lane is adamant that this doesn’t mean Nissan will be abandoning sports cars in the future. ‘The 350Z has been a huge success for us,’ he explains, ‘and that car’s replacement is around 24 months away. It will feel sportier than the current car as it will be a lot lighter. The one thing I do know for certain is that having fun isn’t going to go out of fashion.’