Replacing the gasoline engine with an electric motor is a challenging task that Nissan is willing to take up.

The company announced that in the next five years they will be rolling out a sports car and a crossover. They are pure EVs slated for 2019 launch.

Shiro Nakamura, senior vice president of Nissan announced the news in a press meet. He confirmed that the research and development team of the brand is busy working on a brand new platform. The platform will allow the engineers to mount new chassis and alternative powertrains, which obviously refers to electric motors. In order to achieve similar horsepower and torque, the company may have to add two or more motors which demands the need for a hybrid platform to accommodate such changes.

Speaking to the media, the vice president added that the successful rendering of the next gen platform plays a key role in Nissan’s future plans to roll out all-electric vehicles in the next five years. The brand is not going to focus purely on the Leaf which is Nissan’s electric car in the present but expand their reach to all other models.

“Trying to focus solely on a single electric vehicle will not allow us to achieve our dream which is why we are expected to expand it to other models. Being the leading EV manufacturer is not possible unless our horizons expand and we look forward to expanding our portfolio with newer launches. It could possibly be a crossover, a sports car or both. Hatchback is just the beginning but there will be more such launches,” said Nakamura.

Nissan has been continuously focusing on ways to bring a sports car powered by an electric motor. They launched a concept at the 2011 Geneva motor show named the Esflow. The car used a rear wheel driving system and produced up to 107 horsepower. While it is not groundbreaking, the numbers were good enough for the year when Nissan showcased its concept. The model could go 0 from 62 miles per hour in just 5 seconds.

Nissan is trying to consolidate their EVs under one platform which will significantly reduce the cost of building an electric vehicle. Tesla has already announced Model 3 priced at $35,000 and took over 300,000 pre-orders. Most other automobile manufacturers are supposed to catch up to the benchmark set by the company. Nissan is also working on connected car and autonomous driving technology.