Renault Nissan Alliance To Launch Electric Vehicle in Yokohama in 2010
By John O'Dell November 5, 2008
By
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Pushing forward with its plan to electrify the personal transportation world, the Renault Nissan Alliance said today that it had signed a deal with the city of Yokohama to begin preparing for introduction of a Nissan electric car there in 2010.
That is the same year the alliance plans to introduce an electric vehicle in the U.S.
Nissan has shown a concept EV called the Mixim (right) but is expected to offer different models for retail use. The vehicles to be used here and in Japan are still under development, said Fred Standish, a Nissan spokesman in the U.S.
Standish also said that sales or leases of the Nissan EVs initially would be limited in scope, with a global rollout planned for 2012.
The U.S. program is likely to concentrate on California, where an electric-vehicle charging infrastructure exists because of the state's early flirtation with EVs in the late 1990s under its since-amended Zero Emission Vehicle mandate.
There is no mutual development agreement with the U.S. government, but the Renault Nissan Alliance has signed electric vehicle introduction deals similar to the Yokohama pact with the nations of Portugal and France, the Australian state of Victoria and the state of Tennessee, site of Nissan's North American headquarters.
Additionally, the alliance has teamed with a California-based venture, Better Place, to supply electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark. Better Place would provide the charging infrastructure in those countries.
Except for the U.S. and Yokohama EV launches in 2010 and the Australian launch in 2012, all of the programs are scheduled for 2011.
The Yokohama agreement calls for feasibility studies of customer incentives and citywide electric vehicle recharging infrastructure development as well as use of navigation system networks to alleviate traffic congestion and introduction of programs to promote what the car-maker calls eco-driving -- the use of fuel-saving driving techniques.
Nissan has been working with Yokohama city officials since 2006 on a pilot program combining telematics and in-car navigation systems to offer real-time traffic information to drivers.
Yokohama is participating in a Japanese program called the Environment Model City pilot project. Under the program, Yokohama aims to achieve significant CO2 reductions by experimenting with a range of methodologies in various key areas including transportation, housing and renewable energy development.
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