Infiniti to build sporty electric car

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Four-seater, compact electric car
Show debut for Nissan Leaf
Infiniti should follow soon

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Infiniti plans to build a luxury, high performance, four-seat electric car.

The announcement was made by Carlos Ghosn, boss of Infiniti's parent firm Nissan, at the Tokyo motor show today.

No date for the launch of the new compact car has been revealed, however following, the launch of the Nissan Leaf, which should be on sale by 2012, expect the electric Infiniti to follow soon afterwards.

'We have the battery technology, we have the motor technology. We can carry over the Leaf technology,' Tatsuya Shiosaki, from Nissan's Product Strategy and Planning division.

'We have the know-how and we are ready.'

Shiosaki wouldn't say how powerful the electric Infiniti would be.

'We are testing, testing, testing, so the power hasn't been fixed yet, but based on the Leaf's power we can add more.'

The Nissan Leaf can produce 115bhp from an electric motor powered by 48 lithium-ion battery packs stored underneath the car's floor.

The company say it will build five electric vehicles over the next five years, including a small city car and a commercial vehicle.