The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Nissan plans to sell electric cars in the US in 2010. Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said the company was motivated to accelerate the development of battery-powered vehicles by high gas prices and environmental concerns. Nissan expects to expand to a globally-marketed fleet of 60 electric vehicles by 2012.
John O’Dell, senior editor of GreenCarAdvisor.com, noted that this was a major announcement for the auto industry: “Nissan is upping the ante tremendously. They are the first to put it on the line and say we’re going to have an all-electric vehicle for a certain market by a certain date.”
According to the NYT, Nissan will be the first auto manufacturer to mass market all-electric vehicles worldwide. Mr. Ghosn didn’t offer much in the way of details about specific models or production numbers (he said said it would only be “hundreds of vehicles” at first). The new products for the US market would be something along the lines of a new Maxima sedan, Cube small car, and a new version of Z-family sports cars.
Mr. Ghosn added to the predominant sentiment in renewable technology investment these days: “What we are seeing is that the shifts coming from the markets are more powerful than what regulators are doing.”
“We are not interested in some ‘Stars Wars’ prototype,” he said, “but in really bringing a mass market product that everybody can buy. It’s really a new chapter in the life of this industry.”
Posts Related to Electric Cars:
- Affordable Electric Cars Coming to US in 2009
- Aptera’s $26,000 Electric Car and 300 MPG Hybrid Coming Soon
- Tesla’s First Electric Vehicle, 2008 Roadster, Now Under Production
Source: New York Times (May 13, 2008): Nissan Plans Electric Car in U.S. by ’10
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons under GNU Free Documentation License.
PDF 
About Clayton B. Cornell
