A Nissan official said Monday in Chattanooga that a "pure electric" vehicle with a 100-mile range between charges will debut late next year.
Mark Perry, director of product planning and strategy for Nissan Americas, said Tennessee will be one of the launch locations.
He spoke at the Doubletree Hotel at a luncheon sponsored by the Chattanooga Engineers Club, the Chattanooga Technology Council, the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Quality, the Society of Women Engineers and IEEE.
Mr. Perry said the debut of the new EV is 17 months away.
He said it will be "a real car" that will seat up to five people and have standard amenities.
Mr. Perry said it will be powered by a stack of batteries under the rear seat that each are about the size of a laptop computer.
He said the vehicle will have zero emissions and no engine noise.
"It will be fast enough to get a ticket on I-24 with no problem," he said.
He said it should suit the needs of most drivers, saying 72 percent of Americans drive less than 40 miles a day and 98 percent drive less than 100 miles per day.
He acknowledged it is not for those interesting in zipping cross country on long trips or for those wanting to pull a boat or a camper.
He said the cost of the electricity used will be much less than paying for gasoline.
The speaker said there were some design challenges, including adding a heat pump for cold weather use. He noted that typical vehicles capture heat off the engine.
The EV has no transmission shaft and does not require oil changes, he said. He said it has few moving parts and it is 99 percent recyclable at the ends of its life as a vehicle.
Mr. Perry said there will be some expense in outfitting garages to power the electric vehicles. He said that could range from a couple hundred dollars to up to $2,000 depending on the arrangement and current capacity of the garage.
He said plans are underway for adding charging stations along major highways and at malls and other public places. He said California already has 660 electric vehicle charging stations.
A fast charge takes 26 minutes, he said. He said merchants may want to supply charging stations so they will have the occupants of the vehicle as potential customers for those 26 minutes.
Mr. Perry said electric automakers have begun a dialogue with TVA and other electric utilities on such issues as utilizing smart grids and the proper time for charging EVs so there is not a grid overload.
He said initial electric cars in the late 1990s required batteries so large that they could fit only in a station wagon. He said batteries have been reduced in half and the power has been doubled since then.
He said Nissan would like to make both the car and the batteries in the U.S., perhaps at Smyrna. He said the batteries initially will be made in Japan.