“Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of the Nissan-Renault Alliance, welcomes the idea that Apple wants to get into the electric car business,” Roger Cheng reports for CNET.
“‘If Apple does it, obviously it’s good news for us,’ he said in a Monday keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress trade show,” Cheng reports. “Ghosn’s answer sounds rather counter-intuitive, but he is less concerned about competition and more about raising consumer awareness of electric cars — something Apple could do very quickly.”
“‘The fact that a company outside of the auto industry wants to do electric cars is refreshing,’ he said, adding he was curious about the prospect,” Cheng reports.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Right answer, currently.
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“It’s obviously a good idea, because it’s not our job to have an original idea ourselves, and nobody else been doing shit, and we got no one else to copy. Thank Buddha!”
The Nissan Leaf is a fantastic car. Ghosn earns even more visionary points for his welcoming attitude.
I rented a Nissan Leaf once. It was fun to drive, like a fancy go kart. It’s key drawback was the 80 mile range on a charge. It may even serve as a good non-production “base” design to test Apple’s ideas, like Apple using generic Intel motherboards while preparing for the Mac’s Intel transition.
He’s probably trying to “earn points” toward becoming Apple’s “contracting partner” to prototype, test, and manufacture Apple’s car design. And that IS definitely a “visionary” attitude, compared to the rest of “big auto”…
I have owned a Leaf for 8 months now and could not be more pleased. The key to the 80 mile range is to understand that it is a single purpose vehicle, once you do that and have a use that fits there is no better car. I believe that Apple would face real competition from Nissan’s current and future electric vehicles.
80-mile range. WTF is that even good for, besides a toy? Autos—yes, even electric ones—haven’t advanced significantly in 100 years. Be honest with yourselves, dear Nissan-loving downvoters, would you accept this pace of evolution in your computers? Defend these losers all you want but I’ll be laughing as they all burn.
In the EU, huge numbers live in cities where 80 miles range is all you need per day. Even in London, a very large city by any standard, 80 miles would be ample.
Well, apparently there is at least one person (and more likely, tens of thousands) who likes it. For vast majority of people, 90% of their driving is done 15 miles at a time, and no more than 50 miles per day. Even with 80-mile electric-only range, the car meets 90% of their needs. For longer trips, they can always use the big family car; it is clear that a car such as the Leaf is a second vehicle for daily chores and commute to work.
Balding One, your viewpoint is not the only valid one on this planet. Lots of commuters can get though the work week with an 80 mile range.
The main thing holding back plug-in electric vehicles is flexibility and overall value. If an electric vehicle was sufficiently inexpensive, then I would have one right now for commuting. However, if I have to pay as much (or more) for the plug-in electric vehicle as for a hybrid or gas/diesel ICE vehicle, then the plug-in would also have to be useful on the weekends for longer trips. Without that flexibility, I cannot justify the expense of buying a plug-in electric.
For people who live in or near cities and only require extended range on rare occasions, then a plug-in electric might be fine. For occasional, longer trips, a rental car or Zip car would be an option.
You clearly know nothing about Ghosn. Here is an EV YouTube Channel interviewing him. He’s pretty solid, IMHO
Should Apple ever get into electric or hybrid cars I doubt that he will have a smile on his face for too long.
Apple will never build all electric cars. Plenty of room for other players. Nissan and Renault will be players and they will benefit from the advancements that will come from more, very creative players will bring to the scene.
In all fairness, this guy’s answer is considerably better than the others who are dismissing the idea (“they aren’t going to waltz in…!”).
It is always much more fun looking at Ballmer, Colligan, Lazarides, Ballsilie, Dell and all others who so arrogantly dismissed Apple’s entry into “their” industry.
Ghosn isn’t dismissing this; he is curious, which is certainly better.
Good Comment – I’d add that even getting the auto industry thinking about Apple entering the electric car space is a good thing. It’s like they had a momentary panic and suddenly a lot of new possibilities occurred to them. Maybe some will follow through and make a better car.
He is thinking ahead to where he believes the industry should go as a whole. Tech is routinely licensed in the automotive space and he probably sees a company like Apple as a positive for the industry in general.
Nissan is not a luxury car manufacturer so has much less to fear from Apple than Mercedes or BMW. His attitude is refreshing and insightful.
I know some hardcore Infiniti fans who would argue that point all day long although I am not a Nissan fan myself.
The Leaf is not an Infiniti (interior build is economy – like a corolla, or my Prius). Infiniti put their LE on hold, that may show promise if they introduce it. Even the BMW i3 is not of the interior build feel of a typical BMW due to their use of recycled materials to be “green.” But I would take an i3 over a Leaf any day, and obviously a Tesla over the lot – but out of my price range. I grew tired of the economy build quality – the Prius is now one of my kids cars. Going to have to stick with an efficient gas (Acura for now) until the range gets better in the but 50k nicer electrics.
sub 50k