Nissan Motor Co., now the third-biggest Japanese player behind Honda, is budgeting a record $4.51 billion for R&D as it rushes to update and electrify its lineup. The spending equates to around $1,123 per vehicle.
Of course, this year’s R&D spending is linked to vehicles set to arrive several years from now, not the ones landing on dealership lots in 2022. But the list of upcoming high-tech goodies is a long one.
Toyota, Honda and Nissan are all developing solid-state battery technology. Subaru will soon start building its own EVs in-house. Mazda is reviving its trademark rotary engine.
Throw in work on hydrogen fuel systems, automated driving and connectivity — as well as ambitious goals to electrify lineups by 2030 — and Japan is looking at an expensive decade.
“We keep increasing R&D year on year because we know R&D is the growth pillar,” Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said. “We didn’t stop investing in the future.”
Naoto Okamura contributed to this report.