Nissan could ditch pure-petrol power in the UK to avoid big ZEV fines

Nissan UK’s new managing director and ex-Vauxhall frontman, James Taylor, has suggested a move to selling only e-Power hybrids and full EVs could be the silver bullet that allows the company to balance its books and meet increasingly stringent zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate regulations.

At the launch of the new, electric Nissan Micra, we asked Taylor whether the firm’s hybrid e-Power set-up – rather than a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) system, which in turn brings much lower CO2 figures – is the answer for customers not ready to make the leap to an EV.

“It’s a really, really good question,” he said. “It’s something, over the coming weeks, that I've got to get my head around – can it do that job to that level? In my mind it can, but it’s a bit of a 3D puzzle at the moment in terms of working out what we can do. [e-Power is] a big step forward, and for those not ready to go full electric, it’s kind of the next best thing.

“It comes back to what can you do in your sales mix? So, for example, do you go e-Power only? And then move the rest of your higher CO2 cars into that lower CO2 [band] – because the bit that we constantly have to do, is compare that to that [overall] CO2 number. Every part of the available choices we have to get to that ZEV mandate, we have to try and maximise to the best possible degree,” he told us.

The move, which could see certain versions of the Nissan Juke, Qashqai and X-Trail axed in favour of those running the well-established e-Power tech, could see base prices rise by as much as 23 per cent. An entry-level Juke currently costs just over £24,000, while the cheapest e-Power variant is £29,575, for example – the caveat being that the hybrid comes with an automatic gearbox as standard, and isn’t available in the cheapest Acenta Premium trim.

Continuing to use the Juke as an example, e-Power claims fuel economy improvements of almost 30 per cent compared with the standard petrol automatic. Crucially, however, it would allow Nissan to slash fleet emissions by up to 20 per cent.

Taylor didn’t give a timeframe or even a firm answer on if or when Nissan UK may drop its range of non-hybrid petrol engines, but with an uprated Qashqai e-Power due later this year and new, all-electric Leaf and Juke models on the horizon, the writing may already be on the wall.

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