Company Nissan chose the site for the first mass production of electric cars - Nissan Leaf - for the European market. As reported by Automotive News, build new items will begin in 2013 at the British plant in Sunderland.
Investment in this project will amount to about 700 million pounds (approximately one billion U.S. dollars), of which two thirds will provide the alliance Renault-Nissan, and the remaining amount will be provided by the British government. In Sunderland, will produce 50 thousand electric vehicles. There is also an plant producing battery power 60 thousand sets per year.
For comparison, the construction of a plant to produce Nissan Leaf in the United States would cost the company at 1.4 billion dollars.
It is worth mentioning that Nissan plans to release a model Leaf on the roads in 2010. First, new in the U.S. and some European countries, and then - by 2012 - will begin its sales in all key markets across the world.
Plans of the alliance Renault-Nissan - to produce up to 500 thousand electric vehicles a year.
Nissan Leaf equipped with a 109-horsepower electric motor, powered by a set of lithium-ion batteries and powering the movement of the front wheels. Cruising the car is 160 kilometers, and fully charge the batteries from ordinary household sockets takes about eight hours. Maximum Leaf - 140 kilometers per hour.