Illustration of Renault Zoe electric car, now slated for a Spring 2013 launch.

Renault Zoe sells for US equivalent of $18,000 in France with a monthly battery lease of $104USD equivalent.

2013 Renault Zoe could be breakthrough electric car in Europe.

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08-May-2008

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Italian-French Electric Car Said Headed for USA

Pininfarina and Bollore will invest roughly 150 million Euros ($233 million) into the vehicle that will use Bollore's Lithium Metal Polymer battery technology.

Italian design house Pininfarina has been in the news recently for attempting to revive its business with outside investment. Now that their house has been put somewhat into order (for now), the company is moving onto more important business, like producing a plug-in electric car, for instance.

According to a report by Automotive News Europe, CEO Andrea Pininfarina (shown above) and company have recently decided to refurbish their production facility at San Giorgio, Italy, to make way for an all-new plug-in electric car developed in a 50-50 partnership with France's Bollore Group.

The as-yet-unnamed, four-seat vehicle will reportedly be branded as a Pininfarina and the company hopes to begin series production of the vehicle by September 2010 for customers in Europe, Japan and the U.S. The vehicle is expected to make its debut in concept form at this year's Paris show, with a pre-production model on display at the 2009 Geneva Motor show next March. Pricing is expected to start around $23,000 at current exchange rates.

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