Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is gearing up to distribute the world’s first mass-market electric car in the UAE, but said it will need government help in order to execute its plan. The UAE appears to be a prime place to be Nissan’s hub for distribution of the environmentally-friendly automobile since it also houses Masdar City – the world’s first carbon neutral city.
The car, dubbed the Leaf, will debut in Japanese and US markets by December this year. Electric cars are still costly, but they have flourished in places where government subsidies have decreased the cost of the car altogether like California.
Due to expensive batteries, the all-electric car model is still not economically viable in many countries. However, the average monthly income of UAE nationals in Abu Dhabi, for instance, was $13,000, according to the UAE’s Department of Economic Development. Therefore, if the mass distribution of electric cars can make it, the UAE seems like a good start.
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