$2.4 Billion in Losses in 2008 Won’t Stop Nissan’s Plans to Be Worldwide Leader in Electric Cars$2.4 Billion in Losses in 2008 Won’t Stop Nissan’s Plans to Be Worldwide Leader in Electric Cars

Red ink was everywhere on Nissan’s report regarding fourth quarter losses, but apparently Nissan is not ready to cut funding for it’s electric vehicle program.
For its fourth fiscal quarter, ending March 31st, Nissan reported losses of $2.85 billion.  For the entire year, they reported losses of $2.4 billion.  For comparisons sake, they reported earnings of $4.9 billion in 2007.  the numbers suggest that the company is enduring hard times, but they intend to forge on without cutting funding to its electric vehicle program.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said, “We remain cautious about the economic environment and fully focuses on our company’s recovery efforts.”
There are signs of hopes for Nissan as they acknowledge that some life is returning to the new car market.  They hint that the stimulus package and better access to credit has brought some buyers back into its showrooms, but remain cautious regarding their chances of returning to profitability in the near future.
All of the red ink will not stop the company from moving forward in regards to its electric vehicle program.  Nissan is intent on being a worldwide leader in electric cars and to that end, its production facility outside of Tokyo will be online as schedule and start churning out as many as 50,000 EVs by fall of 2010.  The plant could increase its capacity if demand requires.  The company has plant in Yokohama, Japan and a Zama Operation Center that will handle various EV components when production begins.  Nissan is currently looking for additional overseas production facilities to give them increased EV capacity.
Next year, Nissan will launch a BEV in the U.S. which will likely be followed by several other EVs by 2012 as they vie to be the leaders in worldwide EV production and overall losses won’t stop them now.
Source: Edmunds

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