The bold statement aims to hold water to distinguish the first all electric car from Nissan from the hybrid cars roaming the roads today. According to Nissan insiders, the EV will be veering away from the wedge design followed by the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius.

It will be striking as promised. The first noticeable thing of the EV will be the absence of the grille. There is no need for one. The size of the engine will also be a lot smaller so the hood can be expected to be diving down the line of sight for better aerodynamics of the vehcle. Of course, there will also be a plug for recharging the Nissan NuVu to remind everyone that it is not just like any other vehicle on the road.

So far, the drag coefficient of the Nissan EV is at 0.30. The figure is a bit higher than the 0.28 of the Honda Insight and the 0.25 of the Toyota Prius. The design team of Nissan is still tweaking the design to improve the number, but hey, at least it’ll look better than the Honda or the Toyota, right?

The designers of the all electric Nissan vehicle were not given the free reign on how the car should look. It will still follow the platform of Nissan to keep the cost of production down to optimal.

The production of the all electric vehicle also made Nissan the first beneficiary of the $1.1B loan from the US Department of Energy. This will come from the set aside funds amounting to $25B for the development of vehicles using advanced technology.

If you look at the electric car’s exterior profile, you would think that the NuVu is a front drive platform. But what it actually has is a drive motor located on the back which powers the rear wheels. The automaking company is still a bit tight-lipped about the exact specifications of the NuVu, but word has it that the drivetrain is a fully functional mobile test bed of the new technology that Nissan plans using in the production of the electric vehicle slated for launching in 2010. What consumers can expect, however, is that the NuVu will be able to run at the top speed of around 75 mph and has a 77-mile range. The NuVu will use a lithium-ion battery pack that is capable of 140 watt hours per kilogram.

The production of the electric car will be a collaborative venture between Nissan and NEC Group, with the Automotive Energy Supply Corp. producing the battery pack to be used. The NuVu’s roof is made entirely of glass and will have photo voltaic solar panels in the shape of leaves. The energy tree located on the driver’s rear cargo floor reaches through the roof and is responsible for gathering energy that can be used to recharge the car.