san francisco (Bloomberg) — Nissan Motor Co., seeking to lead a new market for battery-powered cars, said growing US demand for all-electric vehicles will be tempered by the need for charging stations to power them.

"We know the consumers are interested and they're ready," Mark Perry, planning chief for Nissan's US electric car programme, said in a November 21 interview in San Francisco. "Infrastructure is going to be a challenge."

The Tokyo-based carmaker is working with privately held Better Place in Israel and Denmark to create public venues to recharge battery-powered autos. Nissan said last week it will lease all-electric vehicles starting in 2010 in Oregon and California's Sonoma County.

Perry said Nissan will collaborate with local officials in California to set up charging stations for the automaker's first battery-powered cars, which will be designed to travel 100 miles (160 kilometres) on a single charge.

Better Place, a Palo Alto, California-based electric-car service, last week said it would eventually invest as much as $1 billion to create a battery supply system and recharging spots for electric cars in the San Francisco area.

"You have to start with massive infrastructure even before you put in the cars," Better Place founder Shai Agassi said in the interview. "Wherever you have a car, you're going to have to have a charge spot."