Nissan's Olympic frustration

Nissan has criticised the London 2012 Olympic organising committee for its decision not to include a significant proportion of electric vehicles on the fleet for the games.

BMW was revealed yesterday as the firm to supply more than 4000 vehicles to the games, but only a small proportion are likely to be electric.

Hilton Holloway blog: An Olympic-sized scandalBMW joins 2012 OlympicsBlow for London’s electric network

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) told Autocar yesterday that it doubted the capital would have a suitable electric infrastructure in place in time for the games.

Nissan has confirmed that the Renault-Nissan Alliance was one of BMW’s rival bidders, but missed out to the German firm on what a source described as “financial grounds”.

A spokesman told Autocar that more than half of the firm’s 2012 fleet would have been made up of its all-electric Nissan Leafs.

“As part of our proposition, more than half of the vehicles we were going to supply would have been Leafs,” said the spokesman. “Through LOCOGs decision, London has missed out on a significant opportunity to build confidence in electric vehicles in the UK.

“We have the vehicle and we had the chance to do something with it in the UK.”

Some Nissan sources are said to privately be “concerned” by LOCOG’s comments as the firm has an all-electric vehicle ready to bring to market in time for the games and be willing to help implement the network to support it.

The firm also believes the chances of quickly implementing an electric infrastructure in the UK have taken “several steps back”.

Mark Tisshaw

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