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In an effort to capitalize on President Obama's plan to get electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the nation's highways, Nissan is seeking to invest more than a half billion dollars to begin the production of electric vehicles at a manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.
The Japanese automaker expects to produce between 50,000 and 100,000 "eco-friendly" vehicles per year at the Smyrna plant by 2012. Of course, the term "eco-friendly" can be read many ways. In other words, "eco-friendly" can describe more fuel-efficient, conventional vehicles, just as easily as it could describe vehicles that don't use a drop of gasoline. And according to reports from Reuters and a number of other sources, Nissan is expected to first produce a small passenger vehicle at the Smyrna plant.
Still, Nissan is also planning to construct a production facility (with NEC Corporation) that will pump out high-performance lithium-ion batteries. Clearly those are destined to power Nissan's electric offerings.
But in the meantime, it would be nice to get some clarification as to when Nissan plans to produce these electric vehicles in Smyrna. After all, the company has applied for a low-interest loan from the U.S. government. And it should be understandable that we want some kind of clarification on the details going forward. Especially since we're now talking about our tax dollars at work. But I'm optimistic we'll get those details soon.
Also worth noting today is Mitsubishi's announcement that it plans to cut the price of the i MiEV electric car to $21,000. This does include tax breaks and subsidies, but the end result is a discount of more than half.
The i MiEV will only be available in Japan this year, but the company plans to bring the vehicle to North America in 2010.
Jeff
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