Nissan electrifies crowd in Tennessee with battery talk, no pie-eating

You have to savor the irony: Tennessee – land of possum crackle and twangin' guitars – is so resolutely red it couldn’t even bring itself to tilt for native son Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Barack Obama lost Tennessee by a whopping 400,000 votes in the presidential election of 2008. So, safe to say, dang librels ain’t welcome.

And yet, the Volunteer State is quickly becoming a haven for tree-hugging, carbon-hating, electric-car-loving progressives, in part thanks to Nissan. The company moved its U.S. headquarters to the Nashville area from Socal in 2006. Since then, Nissan – and corporate partner Renault – have aggressively pursued a battery electric vehicle (BEV) program.

On Monday, Nissan product planning and strategy director Mark Perry announced that Nissan’s plans to bring a dedicated BEV to the U.S in late 2010 remains on track, despite the ongoing autopocalypse. The car, as yet unnamed, will be comparable to a Versa in size, have a 100-mile range and be priced comparably to a conventional gas-powered car. Perry estimated a $1,350 annual saving in fueling costs as compared to a gas-powered model, and buyers will be able to claim a $7,500 federal tax credit.

“We want your payback to be immediate,” Perry said in a subsequent phone interview.

Perry also said Nissan would like to build the car, and the batteries, near the mothership in Smyrna, Tenn., to avoid costly currency fluctuations. Nissan is seeking a low-interest loan from the Department of Energy to build a lithium-ion battery factory in Tennessee. Nissan is just completing work on a new battery facility in Japan, a joint project with NEC. That facility will begin producing lithium-ion batteries this year.

Perry told the Chattanooga Engineers Club – now that sounds like one wild Christmas party – that Tennessee will also be one  of the initial markets for the BEV, along with Oregon and Sonoma County in California. But, he cautioned, these are not “test” markets. “We’re coming,” he said. “We are going to be fielding a scalable, mass-market, mass-production, zero-emission vehicle. This is not a test or demonstration.”

Sonoma, sure. Oregon, OK. But Tennessee? Isn’t this all a little, well, granola for Tennessee? Actually not, Perry said. Chattanooga, he notes, has an electric car research facility, leased to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Chattanooga’s city buses are free to the public and all-electric, with battery-swap stations to replace depleted batteries. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredeson has establishing a task force to develop not only the infrastructure, such as plug stations in public parking lots, but also the education and marketing of BEV. “The governor has been very supportive,” Perry said. Renault-Nissan, the state of Tennessee and the TVA recently formed a zero-emission vehicle alliance.

It's the BEV-erly Hillbillies out there.

-- Dan Neil

Photos courtesy Nissan of North America, Paramount

Comments

[Ted C.]

Hey Dan,
Tennessee ain't THAT backwards. The governor has a physics degree from Harvard, and the material for the first nuclear bombs came from Oak Ridge.

And you missed one easy crack. You failed to mention that the Chattanooga Engineers Club has nothing to do with choo-choos.

TC

[Pat Stewart]

Contrary to popular belief, we DO wear shoes and (gasp) partake of the occasional latte. There are even liberals here, and while I don't agree with them, I am courteous. I am educated, have all my teeth, worked as a manager for a Fortune 500 corporation (yes,we have those here too) and retired at 54 to pursue my own business. We buy local, like organic and embrace sustainabilty, but don't lose touch with common sense while doing so.
As for Al Gore: if your own 'family' won't support you, that should send a serious message to the rest of the world.
I don't sterotype all the people from California, so I would appreciate reciprocal treatment.

[GuineaPigZed]

Nissan sucks. They moved to TN from SoCal! Whats with that? Why would you take your head office away from the state that mandated zero emission vehicles. To punish?
They had an electric Vehicle. Why did you not sell them?
Do people in TN believe your Bull? Stop the advertisement for your so called future car ( the one you had in the past ). I want to buy a new car. Make it electric please!

[Ken]

They are developing the car to use in California because they are too stupid to develop it. We in Tennessee think the pansy ideas the Californians have are just plain silly and too frilly. Dresses - yes, movie stars - absolutely, cars - NO.

[TigerVols]

Dan,
You are hands down my favorite writer remaining at the LAT (sorry, Simers!) but this column is full of sophomoric bigotry not worthy of your talents. Not to mention, it's full of inaccuracies. First, Gov. Bredesen is Democratic as is several of the state's Congressmen, while the State Legislature is a hair's width from 50/50. Secondly, I was born and reared there and have never heard of possum cracklin. And the Beverly Hillbillies were from Kentucky, I think, but not Tennessee. Cormac McCarthy is, though, so maybe you could pick on him. And finally, suggest you do a little research into the wonderful environmental advances that are going on in Chattanooga -- like how a company there makes electric buses that are shipped around the world.
Swing and a miss, Dan!

[Very simple]

Nissan jumped the shark when they moved to Nashville. They lost so many talented people in a very short-sighted attempt to cut headcount and costs. The company is the worst shape it has been in decades.

All they have left in TN are the people who aren't good enough to have found work in CA and people impressed by ugly McMansions surrounded by rednecks

[benintn]

Dan, we're not all rednecks around these here parts. Keep in mind that we have a Democratic governor, a Republican Senator who helped bring GM and Nissan to TN in the 1980s (long history with automotive industry), a majority of Democratic congressmen (5 to 4 currently), and Gallup says we lean Democratic. What we don't like in Tennessee is people who act elitist or who are "all hat no cattle". We're also not too fond of unaffordable housing, high income taxes, government inefficiency, etc. All in all, I'd say we do fine here in the land of Al Gore. And NEVER underestimate Al Gore. That dude is tireless when it comes to clean energy.

[Jennifer]

What an incredibly bigoted way to present this information. Just because Tennessee's culture is different from that of California does not mean we are a bunch of backwards, prejudiced hillbillies and rednecks. I live in a Tennessee city where a large portion of the population is highly educated. I might be counted among the "dang librels", depending on who you talk to - and I'm hardly the only one. (As TigerVols pointed out, we elected a Democrat as our current governor.) The West doesn't have a monopoly on people who care about the environment.

If you're going to deride our state, please at least do enough research to spell our governor's name correctly.

[Kevin]

Makes me want to move to Tennessee.

[TitansFan]

At least our governor is an ex-businessman with a Harvard degree and not an ex-action film star from Austria. We still have a great economy here in Tennessee and our home values are still up.

BTW, we get our granola from the local Trader Joes.

[Emmett Flatus]

Very simple's moniker fits him/her exactly.

[timo]

Appalachian coal powered buses, what a great idea.

[Sean K]

Tiger Vol: I might agree with your sentiments, but you lost me at "Simers".

[agreed]

Governor of State 1: New York Born, multi-millionaire, former CEO of Fortune 500 company, Harvard Educated, former Mayor of U.S. top 25 city, Democrat

Governor of state 2: Mr. Freeze, action star, "Cumming during his workout and in the bedroom", Undemocratically elected without a majority of californians, Republican.

And you think your state is awesome?
Okay, why don't you get your head out of your ass and realize that no one likes California, and that you don't have all the solutions, but all the problems.

[Pat Maginnis]

You dumb blue state geniuses. Congressman John Dingell maybe better renamed Congressman John Dingleberry of Detroit and the Big now the Midget Three of Detroit have cooked their own goose for 100 years. GM 86ed the EV 1 Electric Car by lying it could not make any money selling the cars. The actual cost to manufacture the car has been estimated at $ 18,000. GM recalled all of the EV 1 cars, and some folks were arrested for refusing to give up the car to law enforcement authorities who were called in to repossess them. Then GM crushed all of the EV 1 cars. Why? If they were loved by their owners?
GM and the oil companies destroyed the old Red Car Trolley lines in Southern California to force us to use cars instead of trolleys all over SoCal.
Now the Midget Idiot Three out of Detroit wants a bail out after voting Republican for years. And who votes for the bailout? Only Democrats, even in Michigan.
Obama, you were elected on a platform of change. Stop kowtowing to all the landed gentry and oligarchs in the USA. Start enforcing change now. Tell the Midget Three no more money until they go ALL ELECTRIC now. GM can roll out the EV 1 and improved models today. They can rehire the 100,000 they have laid off, and they can rejoin the real world and not the past. Take stock in the companies who have accepted bail out money and fire all of their antiquated mismanagement. Clean up America, and clean out the vipers at the Midget Three.
Now we know why the Southern Republicans did not vote for the bailout funds. They want the South to rise again and this time to outindustrialize the North. Amen, brother, and pass the electric socket, so I can recharge my electric car made in the South. We don't need to nationalize the Midget Three; we only need to give them all lobotomies and electric shock treatments to bring them back to reality and not allow them to keep their heads in the sand as ostriches. Excellent wake up article.

[Heidi]

As a Tennessean, I am DYING to know what a possum crackle is. I've had delicious pork cracklins -- out in L.A. you probably know them as chicharrones -- but no possum crackle.

[Doug Korthof]

GM's survival plan is going about it all wrong. It is not only doomed to failure, it will miss a great opportunity.

Cost-cutting by closing plants and firing line workers has the unfortunate effect of destroying our manufacturing base. Instead of continuing the process of dismantling itself, GM should be forced by its own failure to start a genuine reorganization, which would expand and modernize its operations.

Contrary to GM attacks against the UAW, cash wages at GM are not their main problem. Even if the UAW worked for free, GM would still be losing money.

The problem is that GM has:

The wrong dealers selling the wrong cars;
The wrong white-collar workers deciding to build the wrong cars;
The wrong engineers designing the wrong cars; and
Too little accountability for its missteps.

GM has no effective oversight by its Board of Directors. GM, and the Obama administration, must recognize that GM's bloated management and design structure is making the wrong cars.

The solution is obvious: remove management that committed to making the wrong cars, remove the engineers who can't build better cars, and start from scratch with new management which has a real interest in making cars that people can't wait to buy.

Instead of firing line workers, GM should be hiring new workers who are making the cars we need.

GM should be retooling for world-class cars, cars that get more than 50 mpg, that are well-engineered, and that last longer than 10 years; plug-in cars that have features such as electric motor drivetrain, climate-controlled cabin, a goal of no emissions, and integrated into a National Transportation Plan.

Current management seems capable only of whining and pouting about all the things that they can't do. But this just means we need new, "can-do" leadership that will find solutions to the problems that current management is failing even to identify.

We must not fall into the trap of letting GM continue its "Wagoner-Lutz road to failure".

Require that GM stop making gas-guzzlers, and stop paying for production and rebates for obsolete gas-guzzling cars that will enshrine our oil addiction for as long as they are kept sputtering on. It would be better to pay GM workers to fix bridges and build schools, rather than be paid for makework cars, as new, more competent engineers retool for plug-in cars.

GM must be forced to make cars that are in the public interest; they would find out that they could make money producing cars that people want.

Automakers should not receive our money unless they make cars that are in the public interest. GM has produced a plug-in car in the past, but now is stalling and refusing to make plug-in Electric cars.

Hundreds of Toyota's all-electric 120-mile-range RAV4-EV, last sold in Nov., 2002, are still running fine on the same set of batteries they had when new. GM's EV1 ran as well when it was crushed as when it was new; the EV1 would all still be on the road if GM had sold them to willing buyers. GM needs to recognize the seriousness of the problems facing us, and produce the known successful plug-in technology; later, upgrades to now-problematic technologies can be implemented.

GM, and the rest of the Auto Alliance, must be required to make and sell a plug-in car if they want to do business in America.

New management will find a way to expand and improve the type of batteries that Electric cars need, those that are still running the Toyota RAV4-EV, and new improved versions.

If plug-in cars were for sale, it would only take 250 kWh of electric to run them 1000 miles per month (the average drive). That's a fraction of the typical home's electric usage; more importantly, the money saved not buying gasoline or diesel would more than pay for a rooftop solar system to supply that much electric. The same money that would have paid for oil, goes instead to solarize America. New jobs making and installing solar systems, and world-class jobs making Electric cars (after all, the modern electric car as well as solar panels was invented in America).

Simply by forcing GM to offer a plug-in EV for sale, we could make significant progress toward the goal of eliminating oil imports.

Up until now, those running our car companies have been running on excuses. This is the time to install new management, and condition any aid on production of proven Electric cars.

[Brett]

Nissan isn't in bad shape because they moved to TN, all car manufacturers are in bad shape because of the economy. Even Toyota and Honda are having a hard time. TN has been making Nissan's cars for 20 years, many of which were very profitable years. The move from SoCal will prove very smart in the future.

All the people in CA who think the south is so backwards are just as ignorant as the rednecks they make fun of. Personally, having been a grad student at UCLA for 2 years now I would much rather live and work in TN again than SoCal. Now those Nissan employees who were smart enough to move to TN with the company can actually live a comfortable lifestyle without the headaches and expenses of LA. For those who didn't, there are plenty of intelligent and well-educated Tennesseeans to take their place, along with the thousands of others from all across the country who applied for those jobs.

BTW, everyone forgot to mention that VW has also seen the light and made TN their new home in North America for design and manufacturing. Up to a third of their TN made cars could be diesel, and with TN made biodiesel readily available they are cheaper and cleaner than gas cars. VW also may make hybrids or EVs in TN when the time is right.

[Jabdad]

And the Beverly Hillbillies were from Arkansas!

[Chris]

Nissan left California because the State is going under and is completely mismanaged by Liberals just to name one of several hundred problems there. Anyone that operates a business with as little as 5 employees realizes California is not business friendly and is ridiculously expensive. If you don't care about making any money in business then California is for you - but thankfully Nissan is run by great people. The people got knocked out of their jobs in California were replaceable.

[Very simple]

Hmmm let's see. California has UC Berkeley, Stanford, California Institute of Technology, and UCLA, all four are world-class universities. Nashville has what, Vanderbilt?