The Nikkei reports that in a media session in Hong Kong, Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the alliance of Nissan Motor, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, said that the group is shifting is focus on EVs to affordability, having addressed the range issue.

Ghosn said the companies only recently determined that 300km was the key milestone, as car owners on average drive just around 50km a day. “You could not have guessed this [result] through studies,” he said. “You had to have 500,000 [electric] cars on the ground to understand that consumers do not put autonomy on top of their concerns any more when you cross 300km.”

For the Chinese market in particular, price is now the key issue, Ghosn said. “When you look what are the electric Chinese cars that are selling, they are very, very affordable cars,” he said. “The price point of the Leaf today is not adequate for the Chinese market.”