There has been announcement from Nissan Motor Co that it will introduce its Leaf electric vehicle on 20th Dec in Japan which will be the first mass-produced electric car in the global market. The vehicle designed by Nissan is said to be 100% electric, zero-emission vehicle which will enter the electric vehicle market similar to it Honda Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp who are planning to introduce their vehicles by 2012.
The 5 seater hatchback EV will be introduced later in this month in US and early 2011 in Europe. Toshiyuki Shiga, the Chief Operating Officer said Nissan Leaf will start the new trend towards the zero-emission mobility and he also expects this will also create a new start the new trend in the world’s automobile industry. The Nissan Leaf will become the second electric vehicle after hatchback i-MiEV from Mitsubishi Motors Corp to be mass-produced by a major Japanese automaker.
Subaru Plug-in Stella from Fuji Heavy Industry Ltd which was introduced last year also plans for a mass-production. Nissan says production will start during late 2012 in US at Smyrna and early 2013 in Sunderland, Britain. The annual output capacity is expected to be 150,000 cars in Tennessee and in 50,000 in Sunderland. Shiga said Nissan is committed to become the zero-emission leader by adding more efforts and investments with Renault, the alliance partner.
Nissan leaf will contain lithium-ion batteries along with a driving range of 200 km per charge and it will take 8 hrs fully charge the car with the help of 200-volt chargers. The electric vehicle will be priced from ¥3.76 million and the consumers will pay ¥2.98 million because the car is suitable for the government subsidies. The sales target set by Nissan through the next March is at 6,000 units however Nissan has already reached its target during the first 2 mths with preorders in April.
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