And it's very quiet -- so quiet that Nissan is considering adding simulated engine noise as a safety feature so pedestrians and other road users have an audible warning that it's approaching.

They key to its quiet running is, of course, the absence of a gasoline engine.

Under the hood is an 80kW electric motor connected, via an inventor, to a bank of Lithium Ion batteries that sit under the floor from the front to rear seats. The batteries are flat and thin laminated types and four of them are packaged in a battery pack, which is a large rectangular can. There are several banks of these cans under the floor.

A full charge of the batteries will take about 16 hours on a standard Japanese 100 volt home power supply but this time can be cut in half if connected to a 200 volt supply, which is available to home owners.

A quick charge station, supplied with an industrial 3-phase 200 volt supply, can recharge the car in just 30 minutes and Nissan envisages these will be built around town as part of a wider infrastructure to support electric vehicles. Around 100 quick charge stations are expected to be ready for the first electric vehicles in 2010.