(Fri 20 Mar 09)

Nissan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regional development agency One North East to look into the development of electric vehicles and infrastructures in the UK.

The four-month programme is unlikely to make much difference on its own, but it does confirm the two organisations' shared commitment to promoting the use, understanding and manufacture of electric vehicles. You may at this point object that Nissan does not sell electric cars, but it will start doing that in the US and Japan next year, and aims to market them globally from 2012.

Nissan and its Alliance partner Renault have already undertaken zero-emission projects in Denmark, France, Israel, Japan, Monaco, Portugal, Switzerland and the US. One North East is investing around £250 million per year with the aim of creating 22,000 new business and 70,000 new jobs in the region by 2016, and is no doubt hoping that electric vehicle manufacture will increase employment at Nissan's Sunderland factory.

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