I'm a performance car enthusiast but also someone who leans in a sustainable and ecologically responsible manner. Carlos Ghosn turned Nissan from the failing company it was at the end of the last century to the operation we see today. Nissan has a lot of exciting designs but is lacking in the MPG department. To hear him say that a zero-emission vehicle will be produced sparks fantasies of electric 350Zs and GTRs. After his success with reorganizing Nissan's image the first time, I think it's warranted to feel he will succeed again.

The companies that fail to change quickly will go out of business. Look at how much money Ford had to bleed before they saw the writing on the wall and started scrambling (converting three truck factories to produce compact cars, and starting to sell six high-mileage European models here). Nissan has a head start already, since it's a large Japanese company, and cars and gasoline have always been expensive, promoting efficiency (avg Japanese mileage is 45 mpg today). So, this is the next step. Good for Nissan. Get something decent that's reasonably priced on market quick enough and you'll make a bundle.

to Nissan and Renault CEO Carlso Ghosn
I have a suggestion for you ...

Lots of little companies and some bigger ones want in on the electric car. The first production model for each will be expensive and take a lot of testing, particularly for the frame and drive train. There will be a large number of competing battery manufacturers willing to produce battery packs.

The suggestion is to form a "group" of companies to produce a basic car frame and drive that is able to accommodate a battery pack.

Each group member company can share some of the R&D as well as part mfg for this. It is far more efficient to make lots of just a few parts and buy in the rest, so long as they are well made.

The entire group can then share this same platform, and get a common car on the road that is safe, inexpensive, and functional. The costs for crash testing and meeting all safety standards can be a shared expense.

Body style is not included. Each company would place whatever body they deemed suitable on the common frame. We already see this done within single companies, and there is no reason it cannot be done in a larger group. This will also ensure a wide range of body styles and be competitive. Later models can build separately on the same basic platform.

This would also let battery mfg have a common "space" and power rating for the battery pack they develop, which should be sold or leased separate from the car.

A lot of little companies is far stronger than one big one.

Hope you consider my idea Carlso.

Carlos is on the right track.

He's also smart enough to let Tesla / GE / Toyota do all the hard work for him, let them eat the losses, and then enter the market with a lower cost alternative.

Moreover, I dunno how an electric car would go over in Europe, Renault's primary market. Most urbanites don't have a garage to recharge their cars--they need to store their fuel in the car and quickly refuel at a gas pump, rather than allowing it to charge.

What's ironic about the electric car is that it almost demands that its owners have individual garages... which perpetuates what the greens hate most: suburbia.