Nissan Motor Co. will show a concept two-seat electric car at the Tokyo Motor Show this month, highlighting the automaker’s lead over Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in bringing electric vehicles to the market.
The car, called the Land Glider, is targeted at city dwellers, Yokohama-based Nissan said in a statement. The cocoon- shaped vehicle, which is 3.1 meters (10.2 feet) long and 1.1 meters wide, is designed to lean as much as 17 degrees when turning corners, similar to a motorcycle.
Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn has boosted investment in electric vehicles in anticipation of them accounting for at least 10 percent of global auto sales by 2020. Nissan, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, will start selling its Leaf electric car in the fiscal year beginning April, earlier than Toyota’s entrance into the market.
“Nissan is aggressively betting on electric cars, more than any other carmaker,” said Masatoshi Nishimoto, a Tokyo- based analyst at auto consulting company CSM Worldwide. “It’s trying to catch up with others who have hybrids.”
CSM Worldwide predicts electric vehicles will make up less than 1 percent of global car production in 2015.
Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, is also displaying a battery-powered concept car, the EV-N, at the Tokyo Motor Show. It hasn’t said whether the model will go on sale or given details about its range and capabilities.
Toyota, the world’s biggest seller of gasoline-electric hybrids, plans to sell a battery-powered car by 2012. Detroit- based General Motors Co. aims to sell its Chevrolet Volt electric car by November 2010.
Nissan will also display the Leaf, the Qazana concept sport-utility vehicle and a revamped Fuga sedan at the Tokyo show, which opens to the public on Oct. 24.
source: bloomberg
