Special Report: Turning over new Leaf: Get ready for EV era

Nissan Motor's all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, is displayed at the company's showroom in Tokyo November 24, 2010. Over the past few years, Nissan executive Eiji Makino has met with leaders around the globe pursuing an unconventional strategy: lining up support for the Leaf before it was even on the road. Electric cars need to recharge around town and a growing number of governments, seeking to reduce oil dependence and clean up the environment, have agreed to subsidise that kind of infrastructure. Picture taken November 24, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

By William Tarrant, Chang-Ran Kim and Helen Massy-Beresford

YOKOHAMA, Japan | Thu Dec 2, 2010 11:24am EST

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Over the past few years, Eiji Makino has met with heads of state, governors and mayors around the globe pursuing an unconventional strategy for Nissan's new electric car, the Leaf: lining up support for the model before it was even on the road.

Electric cars need to recharge around town and a growing number of governments, seeking to reduce oil dependence and clean up the environment, have agreed to subsidize that kind of infrastructure.

The Nissan-Renault car alliance put together more than 80 such agreements across five continents, with the first batch of its zero-emission cars reaching customers only this month.

"At first we had no clue which regions to attack," Makino, who was put in charge of Nissan Motor's strategy for electric vehicles in 2008, said at the company's global headquarters in the Japanese port city of Yokohama. "Portugal was the first partnership we signed, and that made sense because they were promoting renewable energy."

Later he reached a pact with China, which has long relied on low-grade coal to make cheap electricity and had not been known for its commitments to green solutions. "It was completely unexpected," Makino said.

Many people may be surprised by the coming green car revolution.

Nissan is not the first to roll out electric vehicles, which plug into an electric outlet to charge the battery and have an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine.

Mitsubishi Motors came out last year with the egg-shaped i-MiEV, while niche newcomer Tesla Motors put its Roadster hot-rod out in 2008. But sales of those cars are still in the thousands.

What Nissan and its French partner Renault SA are doing is something no other auto maker has attempted before: getting governments and infrastructure providers involved on a global scale from the start to create, for the first time ever, a sizeable market for zero-emission vehicles.

If all goes to plan, this month's launch of the Leaf, which gets the mileage equivalent of 99 miles per gallon, will mark a major milestone in the history of the automobile and the future of the internal combustion engine.

It's also a crucial step in the Franco-Japanese pair's attempt to win green points and lift their brand images after years of trailing rivals such as Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen -- a weakness that has grated at management for years.

That effort got a lift on Monday when a panel of journalists named the Leaf the 2011 European Car of the Year, the first electric vehicle to be chosen for the award.

"NORMAL CAR"

The car is being competitively priced to match up with conventional cars, taking into account lower running costs.

The five-seater Leaf hatchback is expected to cost just under 3 million yen after subsidies in Japan, and about 30,000 euros in European countries. The mid-sized vehicle will be about $25,000 in the United States with a federal tax credit, and as low as $20,280 in California, which will offer further credits.