By Gabriele Parussini Last update: 1:03 p.m. EDT July 5, 2008Comments: 35 (Updates with comments and adds background.) AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (MarketWatch) -- Renault SA (13190.FR) Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Saturday the company is getting ready to mass produce electric cars to offset rising energy prices. "We're getting ready for mass production of electric cars," Ghosn said at an economic conference in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence. "Energy will remain expensive." Ghosn, who is also chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO), said in May that the Japanese company intends to bring a fully electric, zero-emissions car to the mass market in 2012, in an attempt to cash in on a market for urban cars that Ghosn estimates at about 10 million vehicles annually. When batteries become the centerpiece of a new electric car, the current wave of delocalization, which has left western European car production stagnating in the past 15 years, may reverse. "Batteries you can produce them on the Champs Elysees, or anywhere close to Paris," Ghosn said, because that kind of production doesn't need much labor input. For the time being, though, Renault is planning to boost production abroad. The carmaker's output increases in the next four years will essentially come from plants based in Morocco and India, Ghosn said. -Contact: 201-938-5400
