China approves Renault-Nissan electric car project

THE joint Nissan-Renault electric vehicle (EV) program has scored its biggest deal yet, winning a contract to come up with a comprehensive plan for the introduction of EVs to China.

The French-Japanese alliance will also advise on how to establish a battery-charging network.

The plan is to start selling EVs in China by 2011, in line with plans by Renault and Nissan to introduce EVs in a number of other places around the world.

Announced last week, the deal with the Beijing-based ministry of industry and information technology is the latest in a long series of deals with governments and municipal authorities in Israel, Portugal, Denmark, Spain, France and a prefecture in Japan. They will also sell a forthcoming EV in the US states of Oregon and Tennessee.

Many of the early contracts were written in conjunction with Better Place, which will provide recharging infrastructure in several places.

The deal with China is part of a Chinese government program outlined early this year, promoting clean vehicles in 13 major cities. Wuhan is a city of more than nine million people and is recognised as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational and transportation centre of central China.

Two Chinese makers have already signalled their intention to start making EVs. Chery displayed its first electric car, the S18, in February, while BYD Auto – a subsidiary of the BYD rechargeable battery group – launched its F3DM plug-in electric hybrid late last year.

Meanwhile, in England, Renault and Nissan have teamed up with the leading provider of recharging infrastructure, Elektromotive, to install 100 recharging stations in London by the end of the month. It also has 40 outlets in other British cities.

The extra outlets are being installed because 24-hour customer demand has created a shortage.

Elektromotive, which is based in the seaside town of Brighton, claims to be the world leader in charging stations, exporting its Elektrobay recharging stations to Sweden, Holland, Germany and Ireland.

The company has a partnership with Britain’s EDF Energy and is working with local authorities and vehicle manufacturers to encourage the large-scale introduction of electric vehicles.

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