European Car Industry: Despite selling almost 90,000 electric vehicles, Renault-Nissan will not reach sales target - by Sebastian Blanco

When you're in the lead, everyone can see the target on your back. When you're in front and talking about how much faster you could go, then it can seem like you're setting up your own stumbling blocks.

That's one way to look at the electric vehicle work that Renault and Nissan are doing as they handily outsell their competitors when it comes to pure EVs. In February, Nissan announced it had sold well over 50,000 Leafs around the world and that number has grown to 62,000 by now. Automotive News Europe recently tallied up Renault's all-electric vehicle sales from the launch of the various models through April 2013 and found the company has sold 24,688 in total (Twizy: 9,911; Kangoo Z.E.: 8,760; Fluence Z.E.: 3,487; Zoe: 2,530).

So, let's call it almost 90,000 EVs by now for both companies. That's a lot, but Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn – and here's where the self-inflicted wounds come in – had to admit to the press recently that his companies probably won't hit the original target of selling a combined 1.5 million EVs by 2016.

Ghosn remains confident as ever in the long term potential for EVs, saying earlier this year that, "we know this is a breakthrough technology, we know [the Leaf] is a breakthrough car, and we're just going to have to be extremely patient and resilient and remove the obstacles one after another."

Read more: Despite selling almost 90,000 electric vehicles, Renault-Nissan will not hit 2016 sales target

BusinessGreen.com: Renault-Nissan Alliance inks Chinese electric car deal

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Renault-Nissan Alliance inks Chinese electric car deal

The global march of the Renault-Nissan Alliance secured another victory this week, inking its first Chinese deal in a move that should see the electric vehicle partnership deliver charging infrastructure and vehicles to the country from early 2011. The Alliance, which has signed partnership agreements with 19 governments and cities globally in the past few years, said it has signed a deal with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that will result in it providing electric cars to a government-backed pilot programme designed to roll out the technology in 13 cities. In addition to the partnership with the central government, Nissan and Renault also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the municipal government of Wuhan that should see the two auto giants co-operate on a project to make the city China's first zero-emission mobility city.