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Nissan charged up on electric vehicles as the company's zero-emissions strategy(Associated Press WorldStream Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO_Nissan is rapidly forging deals with cities and governments on electric vehicles as soaring gas prices and worries about global warming make the green technology surprisingly appealing, a senior executive said Wednesday. While other car manufacturers are concentrating on fuel cells and hybrids, Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co. is going all out on electric vehicles, promising to mass-market the emissions-free cars globally in 2012, with the first models arriving in Japan and the U.S. in 2010. "We are feeling more strongly than ever that we must speed up our development of electric vehicles," said Nissan Senior Vice President Minoru Shinohara. Nissan is also in talks with parking lot and railway companies on deals to put recharging stations near commuter stations, he told The Associated Press at the company's Tokyo headquarters. That's one of the main complaints about electric cars: Skeptics say electric vehicles will stay niche for some time because they can't be used for long drives without recharging, and recharging stations aren't widespread. Proponents say tax breaks, preferential highways lanes and other incentives will boost their appeal. "It's still a very new technology and so much remains to be seen," said Yasuaki Iwamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co. "It's unlikely people are suddenly going to switch in big numbers from gas-engine vehicles." Still, Nissan appears to be ahead of rivals in signing electric vehicle projects, Iwamato said. In addition to developing its own models, Nissan and alliance partner Renault SA of France have announced deals with Project Better Place, based in Palo Alto, California, which promotes electric vehicles, to mass-market electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark in 2011. Shinohara said city-dwellers in Japan drive about 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day _ so the limited range of electric vehicles isn't a problem for daily grocery shopping and other errands. Nissan has not yet given details of the electric vehicle it has in the works. Fuji Heavy Industries, which makes Subaru cars, and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plan to offer their electric vehicles in Japan next year. Mitsubishi's electric vehicle travels 160 kilometers (99 miles) on a single charge, while Subaru's goes 80 kilometers (50 miles). Mitsubishi plans to sell its electric vehicle in Europe in 2010, while tests are planned for the U.S. for 2009. Subaru has not decided on overseas sales plans for its electric vehicle. Masahiko Otsuka, president of Automotive Energy Supply Corp., a joint venture between Nissan and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. to produce batteries for electric vehicles, said Nissan has a history dating back to 1992 of testing lithium-ion batteries for cars. Lithium-ion batteries are now more common in laptops and other gadgets but can pack more power than the kind of batteries in rival offerings like Toyota Motor Corp.'s gas-electric hybrids. Otsuka said the plant planned for operation next year will be more extensively automated than rival plants, allowing battery plants to be more easily set up abroad, including emerging economies where the need to curb emissions is expected to jump in coming years. Major automakers are all working on ecological technology. Nissan's Japanese rival Honda Motor Co. is leasing in California a fuel-cell vehicle, which emits only water by running on the power created when hydrogen fuel combines with oxygen in the air. U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. is developing a plug-in electric vehicle called the Chevrolet Volt, which it hopes to launch in 2010. Ford Motor Co. has a demonstration fleet of 20 plug-ins through a partnership with Southern California Edison. Asked why Nissan was focused on electric vehicles, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the trend was toward zero-emission cars. "We are very bullish on it," he said recently in Yokohama. "We feel we're on the right track." Copyright ? 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |