According to Nissan North America’s Director of Government Affairs, Tracy Woodard, and spokesman Fred Standish, electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries production will begin in their automotive factory in Smyrna, Tennessee in 2012, supported by a U.S. Department of Energy loan of about $1 billion.

The overall investment is estimated at $516.4 million and may rise to double that. The Smyrna facility is capable of making between 50,000 and 100,000 vehicles a year, and the workforce, which has been downsized to slightly more than half its peak of 7,000, is expected to rise by about 1,300 once production commences.

Nissan’s stated goal is to have 10 percent of global sales volume vested in the sale of EVs by 2015.