YOKOHAMA: Nissan unveiled Sunday its first all electric car, the Leaf, vowing to open a new chapter for the troubled auto industry and take a lead over its bigger rivals in zero emission vehicles.

The mid-sized hatchback, which will go on sale in late 2010 in Japan, the United States, and Europe, represents a bold bet by Nissan that hybrids are merely a passing fad on the road to pure electric vehicles.

The Leaf, described by Nissan as "the world's first affordable, zero-emission car," can travel more than 160 kilometres (100 miles) on a single charge, at a top speed of 140 kilometres per hour, the company said.

It will "lead the way to a zero emission future, opening a new era in the automotive industry," chief executive Carlos Ghosn said, unveiling the car at the group's new headquarters in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.

"The Leaf is totally neutral to the environment: there is no exhaust pipe, no gasoline burning engine. There is only the quiet, efficient power provided by our own lithium-ion battery packs," he added.

The price was not announced but Ghosn said it would be "very competitive."

Nissan plans to sell the car at a similar price to a comparable model with a petrol-powered engine, and lease the battery to customers.

"The monthly cost of the battery, plus the electric charge, will be less than the cost of gasoline," Ghosn said.

Nissan, Japan's third largest automaker, was slower than Toyota and Honda to embrace fuel-sipping petrol-electric hybrids, but it is determined to steal a march on its larger competitors in zero-emission cars.

The stakes are high for Nissan, which lost about 2.5 billion dollars in the year to March and is slashing 20,000 jobs.

The Japanese maker, which is 44-percent owned by France's Renault, plans to produce the Leaf in Japan and the United States and manufacture some of the batteries at plants in Britain and Portugal.

The carmaker has signed agreements with various governments including Israel, Portugal and Singapore as well as local communities in Japan and the US to set up electric recharging stations.

But the Leaf will not be the first electric car on the market. Mitsubishi Motors recently rolled out its "i-MiEV" minicar while Fuji Heavy Industries launched the Subaru Plug-in STELLA.