Dominique Thormann, the Nissan North America vice-president who looks and talks a bit like a college professor, has pulled out a chart to make a point.
The point is that Nissan doesn't seem to be getting the respect it deserves for a company with growing sales and solid profit — even if those sales and profit are below expectations.
"Somehow, the external description [in news reports and blogs] is that good is not good enough," he says, pointing to six growing vehicle segments in which Nissan has emerged as a strong player with new models.
In particular, the Nissan Rogue, a new compact crossover wagon, is doing very well. The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada voted it best new SUV/CUV under $35,000 for 2008.
"We are growing our share, growing our profitability and we have rounded out our lineup in every segment we wanted to be in. We're strong and growing in six segments with competitive products. All growing," says Thormann, surrounded at the New York auto show by all of Nissan's new models, and those of its Infiniti luxury brand.
The product stars today are the restyled 2009 Nissan Maxima and the completely reinvented 2009 Infiniti FX luxury crossover. Here on the floor of the show, Nissan is also quietly touting an electric version of its Cube microwagon called the Denki.
The Denki is evidence of concrete plans to develop mass-market electric vehicles. Nissan has also confirmed that a diesel version of the Maxima will go on sale in 2010.
The Denki and Maxima are in New York to bolster Nissan's bona fides as a progressive, global auto maker with a strong environmental portfolio, one loaded with advanced products planned for the near future. These vehicles were first touted in the Nissan Green Plan 2010, released about 15 months ago.
Nissan is aiming to develop new clean-diesel engines that meet rules that require emissions no worse than those of gasoline cars. The plan also is to expand availability within the next three years of flex-fuel vehicles that can burn both gasoline and ethanol, and accelerate development of plug-in hybrid technology.
In addition, Nissan is targeting the 2010 launch of a car that can go 100 kilometres on three litres of fuel.
Nissan is particularly optimistic about advances in the battery technology critical for plug-in hybrids. Nissan chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn says Nissan is about to produce a lithium-ion battery within its alliance with France's Renault.
"We consider it practically as a core business," Ghosn said last November at the Los Angeles auto show.
"We have signed an agreement with NEC Corp. Nissan-Renault-NEC are working together on a lithium-ion battery, and the lithium-ion battery is going to allow us to reach a level of performance on the electric car which we think is going to be acceptable to most users.
"We think we are near a solution which is going to allow a mass marketing of the [electric] car."
Early in March at the Geneva auto show, Nissan officials said they are, indeed, moving full speed ahead with plans to introduce a pure electric car in 2010.
In New York, Thormann said fleet customers in Japan and the United States will see the electric car first. After fleet testing, Nissan will market the electric car worldwide in 2012 to retail customers.
Reports also indicate that Nissan will sell the next-generation Cube in North America and some version of the Denki would suggest that the electric vehicle will be part of the Cube lineup. The production vehicle is expected to have a daily range of 160 kilometres and an estimated top speed of 120 km/h. A complete recharge of the lithium-ion battery pack, all four batteries each with 24 cells, will take about eight hours.
