The papers are signed and the agreement is done. Nissan has sealed the deal on a Department of Transportation loan that will be used to modify Nissan's Smyrna, TN plant for production of the Leaf electric car and the lithium-ion batteries that will power it.

According to the press release, the plant will be capable of producing 150,000 Leafs a year and 200,000 batteries a year when fully operational.

Hope it works. That's a pretty big chunk of change to hand over for a completely unproven product. Then again, both Fisker and Tesla got half a billion apiece for cars that don't exist yet, so we'll see who pulls through first.

Revealed: Nissan Leaf Electric Car