If Renault, Nissan partnership can successfully pull off this feat by launching a sub $8,000 electric car in China, they would have set a benchmark like no other for the entire automobile industry.

Ushering in a new era of electric cars, Tesla made people adopt this brand new technology but with a premium price tag. When the Model S sedan was launched, the entire industry was still obsessed with gasoline powered models. However, things have drastically changed in the past three years and by now every auto manufacturer have at least one hybrid model while top players have all-electric cars with low to mediocre mile range.

Pricing has so far been on the higher side and those who were not willing to pay the cost would have to settle with a car that runs for 50 miles or so before it switches to a petrol engine. Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf changed the perspective to a great extent by offering great mile range at nearly affordable prices. They are yet to be adopted on a massive scale and the future looks bright. The same cannot be said about EVs in the Asian market. Countries like China where population abounds is not ready for the change yet.

Nissan’s Leaf which is being sold at around $36,900 witnessed below average sales. The car sold 1,273 units last year which is something the auto brand is hardly proud of. In an attempt to break the barriers, the Nissan-Renault duo acquired a strong 34 percent share in Mitsubishi motors and is foraying into the Chinese market. To make the entry matter, the brands joined together and announced they like to sell a car priced somewhere between $7,000 to $8,000 without incentives.

Carlos Ghosn, head of the joint collaboration made the announcement and added that if they manage to pull it off, it could be a ground breaking feat for the industry. It might take another two to three years before this ultra-cheap electric car gets launched in China. Ghosn didn’t specify whether it is an all-electric model or a powerful hybrid variant but going by the tone, we can safely assume that an EV is what matters by 2020 when every brand would have adopted the technology by then.

With the US, UK and European markets saturated to the brim, auto companies have already shifted their attention to the East where most countries have hardly any idea about eco-friendly cars. The only way to reach these densely populated regions is to keep costs low and offer impressive mile range on their EVs.