Nissan to offer leases of car battery packs

Nissan Motor Co., planning to offer electric cars as early as 2010, will let customers lease rather than buy battery packs for the low-pollution vehicles to provide flexibility, the company's chief executive officer said. Nissan said in January it will test electric vehicles in Israel before starting sales elsewhere. In that program, customers can either recharge their cars at home or frequently change the costly lithium-ion battery packs, CEO Carlos Ghosn said in an interview on CNBC Tuesday. The consumer "buys the car and the battery is leased," Ghosn said. "You can charge the battery at home, or if you don't have time to charge the battery, you can go to a station and change the battery."

Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080528/AUTO01/805280342/1148/AUTO01