Nissan is making a big push into the emerging electric vehicle market, and a lot of those cars will be stamped "Made in America."

The Japanese automaker intends to produce EVs and batteries at its factory in Smyrna, Tenn., the Nikkei business daily reported.

Nissan says it will have its first EV on the road next year. The company plans to build as many as 50,000 vehicles in Japan next year, and Nissan officials have told us the goal is to sell as many as 10,000 in the U.S. Once the American operation is up and running, it could build 50,000 to 100,000 vehicles annually by 2012, the* Nikkei* says.

The automaker chose the United States because it hopes to tap Department of Energy loans and grants meant to jump-start the production of eco-friendlier automobiles. The automaker had no comment on the Nikkei story, which was reported by Reuters.

“To be clear, we have applied for a loan under a program included in the Energy Act of 2007," Fred Standish, director of corporate communications for Nissan North America, told the Tennessean. This program is designed to retool old factories to produce advanced technology vehicles. We hope to be approved for this loan, as we have provided a very strong business proposal. At this time, we have nothing further to say or to announce.”

We drove a Nissan EV prototype based on the Cube. Read more about it here.

Photo: Jon Synder / wired.com