Nissan Reveals Conceptual Mini Electric Car

Nisan Motor Co. has revealed a zero-emission conceptual two-seater electric car Monday, a vehicle resembling a go-cart.

The mini car is not yet ready for sale, but the company said it was planning to assemble about 250,000 Leaf electric cars a year, with the first deliveries set to begin in December in the U.S. and Japan, followed by Europe next year.

Nissan said it has formed an alliance with France’s Renault SA, which will produce another 250,000 mini electric cars a year. The two companies will be manufacturing nearly 500,000 EV batteries on an annual basis in cooperation with Japan’s NEC Corp.

In an interview with the media, Hideaki Watanabe, Nissan’s Corporate Vice President, said the company did not want EVs to be positioned as a niche product. He added the company has been developing electric vehicles since 1947, and lithium-ion batteries, which will be powering the Leaf, for at least 18 years.

Commonly, lithium-ion batteries are used in laptop computers but are fairly new for vehicles.

The new mini electric car dubbed “Nissan New Mobility CONCEPT” has a range of 62 mile (100 km) and the highest speed of 47 miles (75km) per hour.

Many experts remained sceptical about the practical use of the new concept car, saying those vehicles only account for a small fraction of the whole car market, and the situation will remain at that in the next couple years.

Watanabe said the price for the concept car has not been set yet, and its potential use is still being looked into. However, he added Nissan has begun setting up re-charging stations at Nissan’s dealers in Japan aiming at installing about 2 million chargers by 2020.

Nissan is also looking into recycling used EV batteries and re-selling for storage and backup.

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