Motoryzacja

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said interest in its all-electric Nissan Leaf is strong and bodes well for what it is billing as the first affordable, mass-market all-electric vehicle to be sold in the U.S.

Nissan North America broke ground Wednesday for a lithium-ion battery plant as part of a plan to build a five-passenger all-electric car, the Leaf, and create up to 1,300 jobs in Tennessee. The automaker's top executive said it was a no-risk venture. "This is going to be a money-maker," Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said.

Nissan plans to price its Leaf electric car as low as $32,780, when the automaker releases the vehicle later this year.

Renault-Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn was at his most diplomatic in interviews at the Los Angeles auto show Wednesday, declining to take any position on government assistance to U.S. automakers, speaking warmly of Chrysler and saying only that the worldwide financial crisis rules out any cash deal between the Franco-Japanese automaker he runs and Chrysler.

YOKOHAMA, Japan - Nissan's chief executive says the automaker has received over 13,000 orders in the U.S. and Japan for its new electric car, the Leaf, exceeding production capacity.