Nissan Motor and Renault hope to secure five deals for European electric car projects this year, after signing a deal with Monaco earlier this week, a senior executive said.
The alliance hopes to offer large volumes of electric cars to European markets by 2012, and will sign “at least five” more electric vehicle deals in 2009, Nissan iInternational senior vice president Eric Nicolas told Reuters.
Interest is coming from medium-sized countries, regions and cities, he said, without giving any further details. “We’re seeing a growing appetite, growing demand – there is a snowball effect,” he said, noting the agreements already in place in Denmark and Israel.
The group last week signed a deal with UK regional development agency One North East to work together to promote and research the use of zero-emission vehicles.
Nicolas gave no sales target for Monaco, where from 2011 electric cars will ply streets. Mitsubishi has just inked an iMEV trial deal in the principality as well.
Monaco’s government, which will be investing in infrastructure for the project, while Nissan and Renault take care of the cars and batteries, is targeting that 50% of public fleet vehicle purchases are electric by 2011.
