Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn unveiled Nissan’s first zero-emission electric vehicle (EV) at the company’s new headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday, in the form of a blue hatchback. The hatchback, which is set to go on sale in Japan, the U.S. next year and worldwide from 2012, had a sporty design penned by Nissan designer, Shiro Nakamura, and was the first time the external design of the EV was revealed. Nakamura said the EV was designed to be a real car rather than a futuristic design as Nissan does not intended the Leaf to be a niche car; a sentiment reiterated by Carlos Ghosn.
Nissan may lease the expensive lithium-ion battery to keep the price of the Nissan Leaf, as the EV is named, in the same range as similar gas-engine car such as the 1.5 million yen ($15,000) Nissan Tiida, which sells abroad as the Nissan Versa. “The monthly cost of the battery, plus the electric charge, will be less than the cost of gasoline,” Mr Ghosn said.