Nissan plans electric car in U.S. by ’10

bout time

hey what? the first what?

subaru has beeeen working on good zero-emission electric cars! an article from 2005 on treehugger.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/subaru_joins_ra...

Their American debut was in NYC. & id love one! much better looking than nissan's too... i cant wait!

(although i have to say- if nissan can compete with subaru by planning to manufacture more than subaru plans to... id support nissans efforts! They would be more brave & noble to go full force into such solid proven tech.

thats a lot of the issue... you have to make an infrastructure commitment of some sort as well. (ie. recharging stations).

Nearly a decade into the new millennium and it's now we're getting into electric cars. Big whoop.

AreOh, does the price difference between Tesla and Nissan not impress you?

Of course, the price is a talking point, but the point is the technology is here. It's simply a matter of priority. Keep feeding the the Petro Industry(which is one of the few industries turning profits, and in the billions), or refocus those resources on bringing electric cars to the forefront. And lets talk about the price of the car + plus fuel in it's lifetime, and I would bet dollars to pesos the Tesla is still cheaper...

I'm all for electric cars, but hybrids just seem to make more sense at the moment. Society hardly seems to be accepting change and the fact that our environment is being destroyed. At least a hybrid provides the best of both worlds.

Force oil companies to become energy companies by forcing the auto industry to be clean. Where there is $ to be made, those with the most to lose will innovate the quickest.

Bring on the electric car and get me a wind turbine for my roof. Give me the turbine and sell me the maintenance contract… Just like an alarm system…

I cosign dreamsofutopia... I will need a new car around that time and this sorta thing is right up my alley. I do wonder though, where the hell apartment dwellers will plug their cars in?

for electric cars to be truly effective at combating climate change we need clean power plants too. we cant burn coal to create power for electric cars and think they are zero-emissions.

great to see the come back of the electric car tho.

smart grid. see post a few above this one.

as far as city and apartment plug in. That has got to be an easy one to figure out.

Hook up all the coeds on their stairmasters in all gyms to a giant gyroscope and you will power all electric cars in Los Angeles!

don't buy new cars , of any kind - buy used cars with good fuel performance - don't be fooled by the hype , when you buy a new car , you're just continuing the problem - when cars can be made out of recycled plastics and run on waste water then buy a new one .

this is a very interesting idea... now lets smoke some more pot...

Make the electric car /again/? What was wrong with the electric cars we had? Can't we just use those now and have something extra nifty by '10?

The Aztec's believed that the world would end in 2012.

I'll believe it when i see it on the market.

I bet the gas copanies will manage to get involved somehow and at least influence things.

I agree with phillyphil -- we've got to combine electric machines with solar power sources, or we'll just be substituting one earth-raping technology for another. That's why I love listening to Robert F. Kennedy's vision of how solar power COULD save the day, if only we'd invest in it, instead of the military-industrial complex.

Meanwhile -- YAY for electric car makers!!!!!

Going with electric cars would be a huge step in the fight to drop our carbon emissions. I feel that now we are currently raping the world by driving our gas powered cars and burning coals in our power plants. Eliminate the gas and we will for now just be mistreating the environment. Once its charged this car won't be burning half a tank of gas sitting in traffic not moving like cars in major city's do now.

Personally I think that cars and trucks are the blight of our air pollution issues, although I agree we need to get these electic cars plugged into a green power grid.

Also, electric cars were around about 100 years ago but battery technology coudln't keep up cars powered on fossil fuels back then, and gas wasn't $4 a gallon either.

ultravphunter. nothing was wrong with the electric cars we had. I am driving one until the new extra nifty cars come out. And even then I will simply replace my battery with the new tech when it arrives.


Julie Soller, I like the thought! Your kind of thinking is what we need to keep moving forward on these ideas. Too many fall into line with all the big oil and coal corp talking points that list everything wrong with the technology.

alpha nova, If they figured out a way to put up parking meters so that every car that parks has to pay I am certain we can figuring out a way to plug in every car that parks.

if you can imagine a problem you can also start to see solutions to that problem if you can get past the talking points that want these advances to vanish.

Big Oil and Coal has trained too many people to fall in line.

Meah. Electric cars. I'm not even going to touch that one.


But, grats to Nissan. I hope they keep the promise.

It's ironic, seeing as how these companies were so eager to pull the plug on the electric car in the first place. They're not doing this because they care, they're only doing it to appeal to the people who "go green" because it's become a trend, and not a real lifestyle choice.

I think the American auto industry better wake up and smell the pollution because although I would prefer to put out of work American car makers to work, I will be willing to buy the first one that comes out, and I dont think it will be us!
When the guy that is supposed to be for change is talking about waiting until 2040 to do something, I am sure that by then it will be too late for us to be the leaders in a new industry and the other countries are going to be the ones leading the way. They already are.

yes going green is a trend but the oil & car companies really care about profit. they do this through control. if this trend can turn the heads of the media i think they might lift their pinky to go into new research. but who really cares in detroit? for the most part they have been staying back in the 60s with their engine tech. this makes money for whom?

just like cars which break easily makes detroit & the car industry more money... so does old oil tech. (there is a different philosophy in japan) but in the states it requires a revolution on the consumers part. i dont mean california with cafe or what-have-you. it requires a larger expansion of self-initiated engine tech projects & self-researched fuel tech. a lot of apathetic cynical americans balk at what they consider this 'heavy' responsibility. all you have to do is a little searching (on youtube for example) to see an army of home mechanics creating advances in the fuel system beyond what detroit will do for consumers. Look at the water for gas tech for example. Its gaining momentum. Also, there are a ton of largely funded fuel researching institutions around the us involved in creating a better fuel than the traditional gasoline. there is algae-oil for example. support this effort in what way you can. all it is is momentum & real consumer involvement.

if the money is there in this cycle of research & new products it isnt really necessary to get detroit involved... they dont care about us- why should we care about them? make your own movement! detroits already gone to the dogs. thats how capitalism is supposed to work.

maybe japan can save us. they care about new tech because it only leads to stronger long-term growth. maybe tesla or homegrown opportunities can make enough momentum too. good manufacturing is necessary to putting detroits coffin in the ground.

it isnt ultimately about electric... its about consumer forces. dont let misinformers tell you detroit is awesome... the proof is in the outdated expensive product that works on an outdated fuel system. there are even better steam engines than internal combustion now... better electric engines... possibly even 'permanent magnetic' engines. it has nothing to do with detroit or hybrids... it is about gas (petro). gas now... is a political problem, an expensive political problem. and americans are ignorant of what they are fueling.

this is a great idea. it should have been implemented years ago. gas prices are never going to go down; only up.

Unless you plug up to a zero emissions power grid (Hoover dam for example) then your electric car is still not zero emissions. In 5-8 years hydrogen powered vehicles will “hopefully” be the first “real” zero emission's option… well, assuming you can afford the new technology and the means to refuel which will more than likely be in the form of personal home units. We have a long ways to go.

Hydrogen powered cars are too far away. They have been telling us 8-10 more years for more than 10 years already. But we do have the technology today to have electric cars. And they have the technology to make solar plug in ports that dont cost alot. But they also have the technology to make them recharge themselves as you drive. But they havent needed to give that technology to us, that's all. Why should they? What's in it for them? And none of the candidates are proposing to give them a reason to, or make them! The only reason they came out with the electric car in California is because the gov. made them.

Twodee I was going back and forth with Plusaf on another thread when it suddenly occured to me:

I finally realized why the price gouging has been going on.

We have on the technological horizon inexpensive electricity generating devices that are within the reach of the average consumer. These devices will enable the average home owner to generate "free" electricity to power their brand new Japanese made electric vehicles. The consumer will then be liberated from the Tyranny of Evil men who have conspired to enrich themselves. It was shown in a prophecy to me that this period of time since GW was elected would be the final death cry of an old Dinosaur called Fossil Fuels.

A new source of energy, mother nature herself, would come to the rescue of the average Joe, along with knowledge and green technologies that would provide an abundant and free source of energy. This would completely transform the economic landscape forever.

These companies have been gouging us under GW because they saw the popularity of these new technologies as inevitable and they needed an iron hand to rule long enough for them to make as much money as they can before they would be completely out of business, forever. Giving themselves Huge Tax Breaks and Driving UP the Prices of Crude it was a well orchestrated market manipulation.

In the end, the revolution will happen and fossil fuels will die, for the most part. Everyone will have their home grown powered vehicles for city travel and a hybrid to make the long hauls. Gasoline will be hugely expensive, probably over $6 per gallon, but the hybrids will be getting 70 and 80 miles to the gallon by then.

Sales of Gasoline in the us will plunge once the electric cars are sold unrestricted and the diesel hybrids go into full industrial production. Tractor trailers, big rigs, heavy equipment will all convert to diesel hybrids and local electric generating systems to power the future.

That is my prediction of what is to come in the next 25 years. A complete revolution in the way energy is produced and distributed; and a major economic shift that will empower the consumer. They will have much more money to spend to stimulate the economy because of the abundant cheaper energy they will be able to produce themselves at home.

i think you got that right Jubal.

This is a good and bad thing. If there will be a much less need for oil, then that can cause many people to lose there jobs. Which can be bad for any economy.

The jobs will just shift from the crude, pardon the pun, technologies to the green technologies. You still need managers and laborers no what the industry there is.

Now robots, thats another matter. Robots might take away labor jobs. If there ever was a threat to labor jobs its robots.

Plus there are all the developing nations that won't be able to afford the switch to electric transportation at first and they will still be demanding the crude.

why is this a big deal? Europe and pretty much the rest of the world and their grandmas have electric cars.

tasidude are you serious?

i assume this means then that you DO have an electric, you like 'hourding' this technology & you dont care then about the millions of americans who DONT have an electric?

Have you heard about the high price of gasoline tasidude? Maybe you dont know about 'gasoline' where you come from in happy-happy land. Oh, no, we're idiots to care about the subject huh? I guess "free energy" lives at your house right? right there behind the bottomless bag of cheetos!!

well i can see there's no worries at tasidude's house- and basically a big 'screw you!' is pasted on his front door to the general public! no... thanks! really thats very endearing ....dude!