$ave the Environment

Who  do you think claims to be the first one to mass produce an electric car by 2010?  Is it Toyota? Or maybe Honda? Could it be GM? Perhaps Ford?

Well, according to the New York Times it’s neither one. The Times report that Nissan Motor Company has announced to have an electric car on the roads by 2010. It’s a really bold statement considering that Nissan was nearly bankrupt not too long ago. The other auto manufacturers say they’ll have electric cars ready in the year 2010 or after – not anytime before.

You’d think one of the four previously listed companies to make such a bold statement, since they have already released some kind environment friendly vehicle. Toyota has the hybrid Pruis, and other hybrid models leading the market in sales. Honda has the hybrid Civic, and don’t forget their zero emission hydrogen car, the FCX. GM has a large arsenal of E85 vehicles already on the road, and they are working on the highly anticipated Chevy Volt which is to be released sometime in 2010, but not before.

So why does Nissan believe they will beat everyone to the punch? The better question to ask is how exactly Nissan plans to have the cars on the road by 2010. The plan is make use of its Renault alliance, Renault is to supply the cars, and Nissan the lithium-ion battery packs.

Nissan dropped another bomb when chief executive Carlos Ghosn stated that the Israeli government would encourage sales of electric cars by keeping the taxes of electric cars lower than those of gasoline cars. I don’t know about you, but to me it appears to be a very risky move on Nissan’s part. I say so for a few reasons. For one, the consumer has not been exposed to any kind of Nissan hybrid technology, or for that matter any type of green technology. This appears all to be sudden considering the same chief executive touted hybrid vehicles as “a product to fill a niche.”

But don’t get excited, I highly doubt Nissan can live up to such a bold statement. There is more to it than just saying “we’ll do it by 2010.” It’s a lot to estimate that in the near future electric cars sold will account for 1/3 of all cars sold.  A very shaky assumption, considering the demand for Gas has never been higher world wide.

Nissan experienced a sudden increase in profit, $4.1 billion to be exact, and they like the taste of sweet ol’ Ben Franklin. Nissan simply wants a piece of the treasure, it saw the sudden increase in demand for green cars, and with that it saw another green opportunity.

Nissan is going green for sure – all way to the bank.