With GM, Toyota, RTEV all promising to have a mass-produced electric cars on the market, 2010 was already shaping up to be the year of the electric car. Now, Nissan is throwing its hat in the ring, not only promising an electric car in the US market in 2010, but 60 electric models worldwide by 2012. Those are pretty ambitious plans for a company that has very little street cred when it comes to alternative fuel vehicles.I guess high oil prices and rising demand for green rides have caused Nissan to change their tune when it comes to alternative fuel vehicles. Back in 2005, CEO Chris Ghosn was slamming the hybrid as a "niche product" that's only useful in places with strict mileage standards like California. Now, the same guy is saying that Nissan will produce electric light-duty commercial vehicles and crossovers in the not too distant future.
Is this what automakers have been waiting for all this time? Battery technology that's strong enough to power SUVs? It may sound crazy, but they've either all been on an eerily similar production time line, or they've been sitting around waiting for some kind of breakthrough that they're now seeing. All of the sudden, in 2010, there's going to be a flood of electric cars in a single year. How's that for groupthink?
Among the cars coming off the line in 2012 is the Scion-like Nissan Cube micro van that we like so much. We have to assume that the Project Better Place vehicles are included in this electric car debut as well. Who knows, maybe they'll roll out an all-electric pickup before too long. I for one think that would be cool, but I really like hauling stuff -- how not green of me.
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