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renault/nissan

Renault/Nissan chief likes EV odds

Reuters

Renault/Nissan expects to produce 500,000 electric cars annually worldwide at the end of 2013 and does not need a successful launch of the General Motors Volt to help spur interest in the newest green technology and sell its vehicles, Renault/Nissan's chief executive said yesterday.

Carlos Ghosn told reporters that the Nissan Leaf, the alliance's signature all-electric vehicle due out in the United States and Japan in December, will be capacity-constrained in the first years.

But the company expects to ramp up production as battery costs come down and believes that, within several years, its electric … Read more

Nissan: Electric cars could shed government aid in four years

Reuters

Nissan Motor and alliance partner Renault could market electric vehicles without government incentives within four years as global sales reach 500,000 to 1 million vehicles per year, executives said on Wednesday.

Nissan, which is introducing a mass-market Leaf electric car later this year, needs government incentives to spark initial demand but understands those incentives will not be permanent, Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said.

"You need to jump-start electric cars at a certain level so that we can get scale, and the scale will allow us to reduce costs," Ghosn told reporters after a groundbreaking at a plant in Tennessee … Read more

Electric vehicles are charging into Europe

After many years struggling for recognition, electric cars suddenly are big news in Europe.

At the Paris auto show last month, Chevrolet, Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Smart displayed electric passenger cars. Other companies presented hybrids, battery-powered sports cars, light commercial vehicles and tiny electric city cars.

No model captured the change in attitude more dramatically than the B0 (pronounced "B zero"). The B0, a collaboration between French industrialist Vincent Bollore and the Italian design house Pininfarina, was unveiled on the Pininfarina stand alongside a Pininfarina-styled Ferrari California. The stylish, battery-powered B0 stole the attention from the Ferrari.

Adding zero

None of this would have seemed possible two years ago. But recent fuel price spikes and the threat of mandatory carbon dioxide emissions standards in Europe have led automakers to add zero-emission vehicles into their product plans.

In London, the city-center congestion charge has led to a number of tax-exempt, battery-powered commuter vehicles from start-up companies. Stockholm and Milan, Italy, also levy a congestion charge. With other cities likely to follow, automakers now are taking electric-car development much more seriously.

… Read more