Nissan unveils new electric car

[rickaren]

Nissan unveils new electric car for U.S. called ‘Leaf’

Posted Monday, Aug 3, 2009, 1:21 pm in Employee News

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn unveiled the near-production version of his company’s new electric vehicle, a sleek four-door hatchback dubbed the Leaf, saying the potential payoff from pioneering zero-emission cars is worth the risk of investing billions, the Automotive News reported.

Electric vehicles could take 10 percent of the global market by 2020, or roughly 6 million units in annual sales, Ghosn said during the Leaf’s debut at the Aug. 2 opening of the new Nissan global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, the paper said. Where rivals see niche, Nissan sees room to grow, Ghosn said and the Automotive News reported.

Electric vehicle sales hardly even register in today’s market. But Nissan Motor Co., after long trailing Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. in hybrid vehicle technology, sees its lithium ion battery-powered electric vehicles as a way to jump ahead in the green car race, the paper said. The plan calls for funneling billions of dollars over the next several years into building electric-vehicle assembly lines and battery plants for the cars in the United States, Europe and Japan, the story said. (Automotive News)

[MyBluNITRO]

With 100 mile per charge as a target, Nissan appears to "Leaf" ahead of the current competition. This is a 5 door vehicle. There will be a lot of people willing to turn over a new "Leaf" if Nissan really does bring it to market at the same price as a mid sized sedan. One problem I see is most of the country will have to wait until 2011 to see one in their area. By that time, there will be a lot of competition to choose from.