New York City is switching on to the benefits of electric vehicles. In his 12^th – and final – State of the City address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged to make NYC a national leader in zero emission mobility with a number of EV-friendly proposals.

Among the plans are:

• A network of street-side fast chargers

A unique vehicle such as the all-electric Renault Twizy requires a unique method of production. At Renault's factory in Valladolid, Spain where the tandem two-seater is produced, operators assemble the Twizy without using robots or automated lines. 

Watch the video now.

The city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will this month become the latest city in the world to start operating a zero emission taxi fleet thanks to a three-way a partnership among the Rio de Janeiro City Government, Nissan in Brazil and Petrobras Distribuidora. In the first phase of the program, two100% electric Nissan LEAF taxis will be available in Rio. By the end of the year, 13 more units will be added to the fleet.

The first two Nissan LEAF taxis will be available at the Santos Dumont airport stand. Their batteries will be recharged at two Petrobras service stations at the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon and in the Barra da Tijuca area.

Renault’s electric supermini ZOE will launch across Europe in the coming months. The vehicle, which was designed from scratch as an electric vehicle,  is produced at the Flins plant in France on the same line as the Clio.  The manufacturing process for ZOE is similar to that for an internal combustion engine car – with a few exceptions. Find out more in this video. 

Electric vehicle aficionados are in for a treat at this year's Geneva Motor Show. At the show, which is open to the public March 7-17, you will find the Renault New Kangoo Z.E. and the new Nissan LEAF for the European market.

Nissan LEAF can’t stop winning awards. The latest comes from the Canadian Government, which has declared the world’s best- selling electric vehicle one of the winners of its 2013 ecoENERGY for Vehicles Awards.

With more than 50,000 examples on the globe's roads and two years of real-world zero-emissions experience behind it, the next chapter in the Nissan LEAF story is about to begin.

Sydney has become the latest major city to offer its employees a fleet of zero-emission Nissan LEAFs. The recent delivery of ten LEAFs, the single largest order in Australia, reaffirms the New South Wales city's commitment to green initiatives – and serves as an example to its 4.6 million inhabitants.

We’ve already got cars that park themselves… but this is something different. At the touch of a button this Nissan LEAF can do the school run or even take you to work. By itself…

But although it sounds like something from a science fiction movie, the aptly named RobotCar is a deadly serious research project being undertaken by the University of Oxford in the UK.

As well as promoting the benefits of zero-emission mobility to its public, the French authorities are practising what they preach: they are buying more than 17,000 electric vehicles from Renault for use by the government and public authorities.