FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe’s carmakers moved a step closer creating an infrastructure for electric cars after agreeing on plug and socket standards for slow or overnight charging of the battery-driven vehicles due to hit roads from next year.

YOKOSUKA, Japan (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co on Friday kicked off a week-long test-drive event for its Leaf electric car, saying it had a combined 20,000 orders in Japan and the United States six months before the car goes on sale.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it would lower the price on its electric i-MiEV car by 619,000 yen to 3.98 million yen ($43,020), pitting it against rival Nissan Motor’s zero-emission Leaf model.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – General Motors unveiled a new electric concept car in China on Wednesday , aiming to burnish its image as a supplier of non-polluting cars tailored to the crowded mega-cities of the future.

TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) – Japan’s Nissan Motor Co will begin building the Leaf electric compact car at its Sunderland plant from early 2013, making Britain its third global production site for the zero-emission vehicle.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Norwegian electric car maker Think Global said it plans to build vehicles in the United States in 2011 and has picked a site in Indiana for its U.S. manufacturing facility.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Co, the first Chinese automaker to break into the United States, hopes to significantly boost sales of its self-developed electric models in the world’s second-largest market this year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.