[TFord]

Buy the car, sign the battery lease.

Carlos Tavares, Nissan Motor Co.'s executive vice president for product planning and design, held out a vision of a future where consumers buy electric vehicles separately from the batteries, and share access to cars.

"At Nissan, we believe that one day, zero emissions will be a precondition of entry in the automotive business," he told the Automotive News Green Car Conference and Exhibition today. A dramatic shift in vehicle ownership patterns will accompany that move away from internal combustion engines, he said.

"Our grandchildren may never believe we owned cars, not to mention that they had tailpipes," Tavares said.

Nissan plans to launch its first all-electric vehicle in select markets in 2010. It will roll out globally in 2012.

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