Car giant aims to be green market leader

1:19pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

CAR giant Nissan wants to become the world leader in electric powered vehicles over the next five years, it announced yesterday.

The company, which has a plant on Wearside, said it would introduce a zero-emission vehicle in the US and Japan in 2010, and mass-market vehicles around the world in 2012 - making it the first manufacturer to commit to plans to mass-market all-electric vehicles worldwide.

The announcement came as Nissan announced it had sold a record 3,770,000 vehicles worldwide last year, an increase of 8.2 per cent.

A spokesman for the company said it was too early to say whether the electric vehicles would be made at the Washington plant, which employs 4,200 people.

He said: "Obviously the Washington plant will continue to play an important part in Nissan's success, but it is too early to say whether we will be building the models mentioned by Carlos Ghosn, specifically the zero-emission models."

Mr Ghosn, the company's chief executive, presented the five-year business plan, called Nissan GT 2012, at its headquarters in Tokyo yesterday.

He said: "Nissan GT 2012 reflects the determination of our company to play a major role in the development of a sustainable mobile society.

"There's a balance to be sought between the potential growth in world markets and the demand for a cleaner planet.

"We are convinced that the mass availability of affordable zero-emission vehicles is the most significant breakthrough our industry could deliver, and, together with Renault, Nissan intends to be the breakthrough leader."

Mr Ghosn, who is also chief executive of Renault, which owns a controlling stake in Nissan, admitted that the company had decided to push forward the development of all-electric vehicles in part because of high fuel prices, as well as for environmental reasons.

The plan was to start with a few hundred small cars, but to develop other vehicles, including commercial vehicles.

And with the prospect of more customers in growing markets such as India, Brazil and China, Mr Ghosn believed that the industry had a responsibility to manufacture the cleanest vehicles it could.

He said: "The question is how we participate in the growth of emerging markets, while doing it in a way that is not in contradiction with the fact that a lot of people are sensitive to the emission levels and the preservation of the planet."

Last year, Nissan released 11 new models globally, and plans to release nine new products during the coming 12 months.

These include the Qashqai+2, to be built at Washington from August, and going on sale in October.

A third shift at the plant, which begins in June, has created 800 jobs, in part because of the success of the original Qashqai built there, and also as a result of plans for the new model to be built there.

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