Cascais, Portugal — With motor fuel prices on a seemingly endless escalator, there has been speculation that Americans will soon embrace tiny cars like those seen in Portugal and in many other countries around the world.
But it’s not likely, according to a top Nissan executive interviewed here at an event in which the company showcased its entire world portfolio of cars, SUVs, crossovers, trucks and commercial vehicles — about 60 in all.
Cascais is a touristy resort area on the Atlantic Ocean north of Lisbon. Like everywhere else in Europe, the streets are crowded with tiny, fuel-efficient cars and trucks. It’s no surprise, given the fact that gasoline here costs north of $7 a gallon — about double the current U.S. price that has shocked truckers and motorists.
Nissan, which has its North American headquarters in Nashville, builds many such small vehicles, either by itself or in concert with other manufacturers like Mitsubishi and Suzuki of Japan, as well as Renault of France, which is a Nissan partner.Together, Renault and Nissan make up the world’s third-largest vehicle manufacturer, behind General Motors and Toyota.
The Nissan mini cars have names like Micra, Moco, Otti and Pino. They deliver more than 40 miles to the gallon of gas or diesel fuel. They’re lightweight, spunky and fun to drive, with great interior room considering their tidy dimensions.
Despite that, you’re not likely to see them — or even variations of them, on American roads. So says Larry Dominique, the vice president of product planning for Nissan North America.
The reason? Consumers want to have their cake and eat it, too — or, in automotive terms, they want to save money, but also keep their big cars and trucks.
“Americans want better fuel economy,” Dominique said, “but they don’t want to compromise.”
He noted that despite the spike in prices at the pump, the market share for small, fuel-sipping vehicles was only about 4 percent, and stagnant even during the current spike in fuel prices.
Dominique said Nissan would introduce a few new miserly vehicles for U.S. buyers. One is the Cube, a boxy small wagon similar to the original Scion xB from Toyota. Slightly over 12 feet long, the Cube is powered by a 107-horsepower four-cylinder engine with a continuously-variable automatic transmission. Its gas mileage is in the high 30s.But Dominique said other small cars were not in the picture because Nissan wants to develop more brand loyalty for its entry-level Versa models, which are marketed as subcompacts but feature the interior volume of mid-sized cars.
With U.S. motorists mostly unwilling to give up their existing cars, trucks and SUVs, Dominique said it would be up to vehicle manufacturers to come up with other solutions.
“I think we can have improved fuel economy without pushing people into something smaller,” he said.
A major obstacle, he said, is that existing technologies, like diesel engines and hybrids, are expensive, meaning that buyers don’t start to see payback savings for many years.
Yet the expense could be worth it in some cases. Dominique said, for example, surveys showed diesel trucks had way higher resale value than those with gas engines.
Despite all the new, fuel-efficient technologies, Dominique said that conventional gas-fueled vehicles would continue to dominate for years to come.
Nissan and other manufacturers, he said, likely would meet the challenge by downsizing engines to enhance fuel economy and adding turbo-charging to maintain performance.
He also said Nissan could offer a lower-powered, less expensive version of the Versa. So you’ll likely see that and the Cube. Just don’t wait for an Otti, Micra, Pino or Moco.
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