I thought I followed car news (and electric car/hybrid news fairly closely) but this caught me totally by surprise.

Auto123.com:

“Nissan’s vision is to provide the general public with zero-emission vehicles by 2012. And already, thanks to ongoing research on lithium-ion batteries undertaken in 1992, Nissan says it has almost found the solution…

“The vehicles provided to the two States in question have an operating range of 160 kilometres, recharge to 80 % capacity in less than 26 minutes and cost less than 70 cents per full tank of gas. This is a viable solution that we could establish if the recharging installations were available. We still have a lot of research ahead of us, but we are the leaders in this field,” says [Mark Perry, director of environmental product planning for Nissan].”

Did anyone know about this?  I only vaguely recall some hybrid Altimas about a year ago that didn’t seem to sell at all.

And the most fascinating comment that really shows Nissan’s (or at least Mr. Perry’s) understanding of the situation and their willingness to face hard truths:

“”If all the developing countries counted on individual cars as much as North Americans, we would need 11 extra planets to provide the necessary resources. Some things absolutely must change, and that’s what we’re doing,” concludes Perry.”

Amen, brother.

This is coming from a motorcycle and car owner who loves cars and motorcycles, but takes the bus to work and back every day (though I could easily drive or, weather permitting, ride).

… and the cow goes moo