Nikkei reports that Nissan plans to wrap up new internal combustion engine development in all countries except for the USA, shifting focus towards electric cars like the Ariya EV shown here.
The car manufacturer is no longer working on new engines for Europe and will be gradually phasing out ICE cars in Japan and China. Hybrid powertrains will stay in development for a while longer, though.
The United States market is the only one preventing Nissan from becoming an EV maker in the full sense of the word: in North America, fuel engines are still popular on trucks and semis.
The factories that used to make IC engines will not be shut down. Instead, Nissan will retrofit them to produce newer versions of the existing engines. No job cuts is expected in the near future, either.
In all likelihood, the company decided to go electric due to new EU emission standards entering force in 2025. These can potentially render the production of new IC engines not economically viable.
Nissan is the first major Japanese automaker to make this decision.