KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Friday he believes environmentally friendly electric cars will dominate the future as automakers join the fight against global warming.
Nissan and French alliance partner Renault are already developing its first electric car in Israel that it hopes to mass market by 2011, he said.
However, the group is also working on other advanced vehicles including hybrid engines and hydrogen fuel cells as government policies in different parts of the world will dictate the trend for automakers, he said.
Ghosn was in Malaysia to deliver a speech hosted by the Malaysian government's investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
''I think the future would be ... zero emission cars. Particularly among urban drivers, there is a lot of appeal. We are pushing particularly this technology but we are not putting all our eggs in the same basket,'' Ghosn told a news conference.
Ghosn, who is also chief executive at Renault, pointed out that diesel cars accounted for half of sales in Europe but only less than 1 percent of sales in Japan and the United States.
''We have to be careful that we do not, as car manufacturers, embark in only one direction because we can be taken by surprise as regulations and political campaigning can bring different twists into what in the end is the dominant technology,'' Ghosn said.
''We have to be prepared into pushing different technologies in different markets... that is, in a nutshell, our strategy,'' he said.
Ghosn earlier visited a new 230 million ringgit (US$72 million; euro47 million) plant by Tan Chong Motors, the sole distributor of Nissan cars in Malaysia.
Despite a slump in the U.S., Japan and Europe markets, he said Nissan expects its global sales for the fiscal year through March 2008 to exceed its forecast of 3.7 million units, but didn't give a specific figure.
For the fiscal year through March 2009, he said mature markets are likely to remain stagnant but sales will be boosted by growth in developing countries such as Russia, China, India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
''In 2008 you are going to see a mixed picture,'' he said.
''But we have a strategy of technology and products and enlargement of the brand ... that will allow us to grow even though the overall market is stagnant.''
Ghosn said the group is working with India's Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. to produce a below US$3,000 (euro1,945) car by late 2010 or early 2011. He pledged the car will be fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly.
''If it is successful in India, we will launch it in many developing countries where we think there is demand,'' he said.
India's Tata Motors in January unveiled the world's cheapest car, a US$2,500 four-door subcompact that it said would transform the auto industry. But environmentalist have expressed concerns over increasing pollution and pressure on global oil prices.
