Nissan to make electric cars in Tenn. with fed help

Source: The Detroit News

Nissan Motor Co. will start making electric cars in the United States in 2012 with the help of a $1.6 billion loan provided by the U.S. government to encourage automakers to produce cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Nissan plans to produce electric cars at its Smyrna, Tenn., assembly plant, powered by lithium-ion batteries that will be built at a new facility on the site.

The Japanese automaker plans to start selling electric cars in the United States next year and has lined up partnerships with several state and local governments and utilities to establish charging stations.
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Nissan will initially import electric cars from Japan, but expects to have the capacity eventually to make 150,000 electric cars a year in Tennessee, said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president for administration and finance at Nissan North America.

With two assembly plants in the United States, Nissan was eligible to apply to the Department of Energy's $25 billion loan program for manufacturers producing vehicles in the United States.

"This loan ... will help us put high-quality, affordable zero-emissions vehicles on our roads," Thormann said.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wants the Renault-Nissan alliance to be a leader in offering zero-emission vehicles. Nissan has not shown the electric car it plans to sell next year but says it will seat five comfortably and run for 100 miles on a single charge.