Nissan to invest $18 billion in electric vehicle push

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian details Nissan's new investment in electric vehicles.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. Well, Nissan just revealed a plan to pump nearly $18 billion into ramping up EV. Here with more is Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian. What's behind the move, Pras?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: You know, it's a big splash from Nissan, nice big, big headline number. But I've got to say, it's about time really for the Japanese automaker. You know, 10 years ago, they debuted the all electric Nissan Leaf, one of the first EVs to come on a mass scale.

And then nada after that, right? Two weeks ago, we heard about the Nissan Aria which is a new crossover EV so they put that out. They're offering customers to pre-order that car.

But they're really now, they kind of unveil their bigger game plan beyond the Aria-- $18 billion over five years to catch up in the game, 23 electrified vehicles, including 15 EVs by 2030. You know, also plans introduce solid state batteries which are-- it's a pretty cool tech that allows for higher charging capacity more energy in a battery.

But I've got to say, you know, our Nissan's plans too cautious here. You know, some analysts in Japan think so because you compare it to GM who's spending $35 billion, and Ford spending $29 billion, it doesn't seem like they're spending enough to stay in this EV game.

But I think the bigger picture here for Nissan is that basically price will see a world where gas and hybrid powered cars still stick around for quite some time. We spoke to Nissan CEO on the 3 o'clock Show a few months ago, and he kind of hinted at that too.

So I think Nissan is sort of spreading their bets across the EV landscape, but also keeping their hands in the hybrid space too.

- All right, Pras Subramanian, thank you so much for that update. And we will have to leave it there.