Nissan Launches New Electric Car

The Leaf is the name of new electronic and environmental friendly car launched by Nissan motor company recently. The company has opened new headquarters at Yokohama, Japan and it was during this opening ceremony that first public viewing of The Leaf took place. This zero emission vehicle is set to go on sale in US, Europe and Japan next year. Designer Shiro Nakamura has given a sporty design to the blue hatchback which has a recharging opening in its front to avoid stereotypical designs of future. He said that the car is neither niche nor unusual looking. It’s just a real car.
The leaf will soon go into mass-production in 2012 as a global model and will be priced about same as a gas engine car such as Tiida whose value is 1.5 million Yen (15,000 USD) but sells abroad as Versa, starting at $10,000, as promised by Nissan. While Carlos Ghosn who is Nissan’s chief executive drove out the car on stage, Junichiro Koizumi- former prime minister was sitting next to him and Yokohama mayor and governor were seated in the rear seats. The new office building in Yokohama and the new car have marked two fresh starts for Nissan. The car is a real breakthrough and is expected to take a lead in zero emission vehicles.
Renault SA of France has an alliance with Nissan, which has reportedly fallen behind Honda Motor co and Toyota Motor Corp (both are Japanese rivals) in increasingly popular gas-electric hybrids. The company is selling its old Tokyo headquarters to cut costs as it is losing money amid global downturn. However, the new headquarters which has 22 storeys is sufficiently designed to be energy efficient in order to quality as one of the most ecological buildings of Japan. After all, they key to Japan’s economic growth is its environmentally friendly auto technology.
The first car drive was so quiet and smooth that Koizumi has high hopes of its getting popular on its official launch.