Nissan leader says Tennessee 'critical player' in electric vehicle production

Kim Chaudoin | 

Nissan's Carlos Tavares was the featured speaker at Tuesday's Nashville Business Breakfast.
The Nashville Business Journal's Kate Herman, center, and Turney Stevens, dean of the College of Business, interview Tavares.
Nissan's cube.

Tennessee will be a key player in the development of a mass-market electric car, Carlos Tavares, Nissan’s executive vice president for Americas operations, announced today at Lipscomb University’s Nashville Business Breakfast.

“Nissan is committed to being a leader in zero percent emission vehicles. We have developed an electric car that will be offered at an affordable price and that will offer consumers everything they are accustomed to having in their vehicles today. Tennessee will be a critical player in the future of this new electric vehicle,” Tavares told a crowd of more than 340 business people from around Middle Tennessee.

Manufacturing of the Leaf, the first family-sized electric vehicle produced for the mass market, will take place at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., facility. Nissan is investing $1 billion to build a lithium–ion battery plant in Smyrna and to reconfigure its existing facility to build the Leaf. When the plant is in full production, it will produce an estimated 150,000 electric cars a year and create 1,300 new jobs for the region, Tavares said.

“This is an exciting time for Nissan, for Tennessee and the entire automobile industry,” said Tavares. “The eyes of the world will be watching us with great interest.”

According to Tavares, the Nissan Leaf is 100 percent electric, burns no gas and produces zero emissions. The vehicle will hold up to five passengers, can reach speeds of up to 90 miles-per-hour and can be driven an average of 100 miles between charges. The electric vehicles will be available in the United States and in Japan beginning in late 2010. Tavares said that Nissan initially will produce the Leaf in Japan before production is shifted to Smyrna in 2012.

Tavares said that to help ensure that infrastructure is in place to support zero-emissions vehicles, Nissan has been involved during the past year in establishing partnerships with governments, municipalities, utility companies, and public and private organizations aimed at creating conditions—such as charging stations—that will support the market for zero-emissions vehicles.

“The cities and the suppliers of electricity are key partners in this endeavor,” he said.

As chairman of the Management Committee-Americas (MC-A), Tavares oversees Nissan’s operations in North, Central and South America, including manufacturing, engineering, design, sales and marketing, administration and finance.

Before assuming his current responsibilities, he supervised a number of functions globally, including corporate planning, product planning, design, brand management, market intelligence, control and the Infiniti and light commercial vehicle businesses.

Tavares joined Nissan in April 2004 as a program director. Later that year, he was appointed vice president of product strategy and product planning. In 2005, he was named executive vice president and elected as a member of the Board of Directors. Tavares came to Nissan from its alliance partner Renault, where he spent 23 years in engineering and program-management roles, including program director for C-segment cars.

In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.