YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters)  Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, took the wraps off its much-awaited electric car on Sunday, naming the hatchback the Leaf.

Nissan and its French partner, Renault, have been aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles with no emissions, announcing plans to mass-market the clean but expensive cars globally in 2012.

Nissan will begin selling the first Leaf cars in the United States, Japan and Europe toward the end of 2010, adding two more models soon after. It expects initial annual production capacity of 50,000 units, which will rise to 200,000 units when the car is introduced globally in 2012.

Coordinating the car’s introduction with the inauguration of Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, the chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, drove up to the stage in a sky-blue Leaf prototype. Nissan is returning to the port city of Yokohama, where it was founded in 1933, after being based in Tokyo’s high-end Ginza shopping district for 41 years.