Spain And Renault Study Electric Car Plan
Date: 21-Oct-08
Country: SPAIN
"We are going to put together a working group before February to study a medium- to long-term plan to develop an electric car in Spain with Renault as a main player," Sebastian said.
The government hopes 1 million electric cars will be criss-crossing Spanish streets by 2011, he said.
Sebastian said the country's electricity producers had also expressed interest in the plan, following news that French power utility EDF had signed a deal with Renault to develop a large scale electric car project, starting in France.
The plan would be a boon for an industry that saw sales tumble 32 percent in September during a sharp economic downturn, resulting in large-scale layoffs, and which is under pressure to address environmental concerns, he said.
Several European countries are developing projects to introduce electric cars.
Renault sees demand for as many as 50,000 electric vehicles in 2011, the year the carmaker will begin selling zero emission cars in Denmark, Israel and Portugal.
Renault is to produce a car for those markets, known as the 'Fluence', based on its mid-sized Megane model, and will eventually offer a full family of electric vehicles.
The French carmaker says taking into account carbon dioxide produced to charge the battery, C02 emissions would be at worst 60g per kilometre versus an average of 158g/km for European carmakers.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay and Manuel Maria Ruiz; Writing by Paul Day; Editing by David Cowell)