Tokyo Especially in the entry-level segment, the choice for buyers of an electric car is manageable. The end of the VW E-Up is a done deal, a cheaper successor has been announced for 2025 at the earliest. Thanks to the purchase premium, the Dacia Spring alone is roughly at the price level of a small combustion car.
In Japan, two car manufacturers are now offering an alternative. At Nissan the model is called “Sakura”, at Mitsubishi it is called “eK X”. With a price of around 12,000 euros (1.7 million yen) after deduction of government subsidies, the basic version can compete with cheap combustion engines. The full version is in the catalog for 21,000 euros – but then also offers a 360-degree camera view and driving assistants for semi-autonomous driving on the motorway.
Both belong to the segment of small cars for the city that is important in Japan, the so-called kei cars with a maximum length of 3.40 meters, 1.48 meters width and 660 cubic centimeter combustion engines with 64 hp. While the European manufacturers of electric cars mainly focus on premium cars, the Japanese are also defying their Chinese rivals in the entry-level segment.
This is lucrative in Japan: 31 million kei cars are already driving there today. As inexpensive delivery vehicles in local traffic, kei cars are also important in local logistics. They are particularly popular with self-employed drivers and small companies with fewer than 20 employees, who make up 70 percent of the 60,000 logistics companies.
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In addition, they are particularly common in rural areas and the suburbs. So far, the segment only had little to offer electrically.
The Japanese manufacturers have learned from the Chinese for their push into the low-cost segment. In the largest car market in the world, low-cost electric vehicles such as the Wuling Hong Guang Mini have long had impressive sales figures, explains car analyst Chris Richter from the CLSA in Tokyo.
In 2021 alone, the Chinese low-cost electric car was sold 426,500 times. “Nissan and Mitsubishi have adapted the idea for Japan,” judges Richter. “They learned a lot that can be transferred to emerging countries, where costs also play a major role.” However, the manufacturer has not yet revealed whether Nissan will also offer the Sakura outside of Japan.
Small batteries, cheap price
With the Sakura, Nissan initially wants to conquer the Japanese market, which has so far been dominated by hybrids, with affordable electric cars. Therefore, the team has checked every detail to save all unnecessary costs, explains Riho Suzuki, the product manager for the Sakura. The most important was the battery, the most expensive component of an electric car.
The interior of the cheap electric car is spartan.
Here the company relies primarily on its experience with the Nissan Leaf. The compact car was the best-selling electric car in the world for years – but was recently left behind by competitors such as the Tesla Model 3. The battery technology from the Leaf is now also used in the Sakura – albeit with a significantly lower capacity of 20 kilowatt hours.
With the smaller and therefore cheaper battery, the Sakura should have a range of up to 180 kilometers. However, without motorway journeys: Kei-Cars are mostly only used for relatively short journeys in the city or in the country, says Suzuki. The battery offers a “good balance between daily use and costs”. The Sakura is not built in China, but in Japan, unlike cheap e-cars like the Dacia Spring or the Smart EQ.
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A test drive in Yokohama shows that a small motor combined with a small battery is definitely fun to drive in the city. Because the Sakura only weighs a little over a ton – half as much as the standard version of a Tesla Model 3. Despite the weak engine, the acceleration is therefore convincing.
With a cheap entry-level car, Nissan could close a gap in the range that is currently being served by only a few manufacturers. “Right now, most Western manufacturers are focusing on the same thing as Tesla,” explains auto analyst Richter. Nissan also recently launched an electric SUV with the Ariya, which primarily wants to convince premium customers.
The model is particularly narrow and high, as it will also be used by many delivery services in Japanese cities.
But cars with large batteries and long range are usually correspondingly expensive. So far, neither the electric pioneer Tesla nor corporations like Volkswagen have ventured into the cost-sensitive entry-level segment. The established car companies have a strategic advantage here, says auto analyst Richter: “A large manufacturer can concentrate on niches much more easily than a much smaller brand like Tesla.”
And one problem could also delay the breakthrough of electric kei cars in the home market: many Japanese people shy away from buying pure electric cars because only a few of the paid parking spaces in apartment blocks or private parking providers offer electricity connections.
And the Chinese competition has long been looking at the lucrative entry-level segment in Japan: BYD (Build Your Dreams) wants to start with electric cars in Japan at the beginning of 2023.
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