YOKOSUKA, Japan: Nissan Motor Co. showed off its super-quiet, zero-emission electric car on Monday – a key green offering for Japan’s No. 3 automaker, which has fallen behind in hybrid technology.

Nissan showed the prototype in a Tiida compact that is already on sale.

The platform will be incorporated into a new vehicle body that will be unveiled at the beginning of August. It consists of a highly rigid body (designed to reduce vibrations and increase the car’s durability), an electric motor, and a lithium-ion battery pack built into the floor of the car so that it doesn’t eat into cargo space. The production version of the vehicle will go on sale next year, the company says, and get 160 kilometers–100 miles–on a charge.

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Nissan said its intention is to create an all-electric vehicle that can be driven “24/7,” and to support that has developed an EV-IT system that connects the vehicle, through an on-board transmitter, to a global data center. Drivers will be able to check the state of charge of their vehicles online and by cell phone, and the car’s navigation center will calculate driving radius and capability of reaching a selected destination based on the current state of charge. It can also tell the driver where the closest charging stations are.

Another interesting function is a remote-controlled timer that lets the air-conditioning be turned on to “precool” the vehicle while it’s plugged in during charging to save battery use. The remote function also lets the driver tell battery charging functions to start and stop at specific times.

More details are expected at the August 2 event.