Japan's Nissan Motor Co delivered the first mass-market all-electric car to a technology entrepreneur in California on Saturday as the company tries to get a jump in the nascent green vehicle race.
The first customer, Olivier Chalouhi, has been riding an electric bicycle to work, and he plugged his new car in for the cameras outside San Francisco City Hall. The charge point, one of 400 in the region, had a green official city sign near it that said, "Green Vehicle Showcase: Cars that make a difference."
The Leaf is one of a handful of mass-market fully electric or extended range plug-in vehicles slated to reach consumers in the next year.
The battery-powered Leaf, with an EPA-certified battery-only range of 73 miles (120 km) is due to hit showrooms this month in a limited roll-out - along with Chevy Volts by General Motors Co. Ford Motor Co expects to deliver its first electric Focus compact cars late next year.
Carlos Taveras, the North American head of Nissan, said his company would focus on satisfying the first 20,000 Leaf customers before opening up for more orders next year.
"We are not in a rush," he told reporters, reasserting Nissan's plan to go straight to zero-emission cars, as opposed to the Volt with its gasoline engine that can recharge the battery to give it more range.
Work at Nissan's Tennessee plant was under way to have production capacity for 100,000 battery packs by early 2013, Taveras said, though he told Reuters that was not an indication of expected demand for the car.
GM plans to build 10,000 Volts next year, 45,000 in 2012 and has begun discussing ways it could increase the production should there be more demand.
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