What’s Going On Here?Nissan announced an $18 billion investment into electric vehicles (EVs) earlier this week, which should help the Japanese carmaker stretch to those shiny new batteries it’s had its eye on. What Does This Mean?Sales of battery-powered EVs are expected to jump from around 2 million a year in 2020 to 14 million in 2030. And Nissan, for its part, is keen not to get left behind: the company wants EVs to represent 75% of its European sales and 40% of its US sales by 2026 and 2030 respectively. That’s part of an overarching goal to make over half its total sales either hybrid or totally electric by 2030.
To help make it happen, Nissan’s hoping to speed up development of a new battery – one that’ll be more powerful and cheaper, and that can be mass-produced by 2028. But all this innovation comes at a price, which is why the carmaker’s planning to invest $18 billion into the EV space over the next five years (tweet this). Why Should I Care?The bigger picture: There’s a long way to go.
The EV boom’s got traditional carmakers scrambling to electrify their lineups, but some analysts doubt they’ll be able to produce as many as Tesla until at least 2026. Not least because the market leader has spent years developing the infrastructure it needs to mass-produce its selection of models, while the veterans have only just started converting factories into ones that can build the buzzy new vehicles.
Zooming out: Big dreams, big problems.
Volvo’s got its eyes on the prize too, with the Swedish carmaker aiming to become fully electric by 2030. But it has some issues to iron out first: the company reported on Tuesday that it made 50,000 fewer cars last quarter than the same time last year on the back of the global chip shortage. Revenue was 7% lower too, which might’ve been why investors initially sent its stock down 3%. | 
