The Nissan Leaf will cost £23,350 when it goes on-sale in the UK in February next year - after government incentives.
The UK government incentive for electric cars is for 25 per cent of the purchase price of the car, up to a maximum of £5000. The Leaf will qualify for the full discount.
The UK price is in line with Nissan's policy of selling the car for less than 30,000 euros throughout Europe, after government incentives.
The Leaf will initially be launched in the UK, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands. The Netherlands will be the first European country to get the car, in December of this year. UK buyers can reserve a car from July.
Demand is expected to outstrip supply for the initial batch of Leafs that will be built in Japan; the company has already had mote than 10,000 customers pay a small deposit as an expression of interest and a similar scheme will be launched in Europe this summer.
Each battery pack is said to have a life of between five and 10 years. Nissan will improve the technology all the time and as more Leafs are produced, the cost will come down.
Nissan will break even on the Leaf in the first year and the car has been built to "make money", according to autocar.co.uk sources.
Production of the Leaf will commence at Sunderland in February 2013 and the plant will build 50,000 units per year on the same production line as the Note and Juke.
At the launch of the Leaf the Renault-Nissan alliance also confirmed it will launch eight electric cars across three brands - Renault, Nissan and Infiniti - as part of a 4 billion euro (£3.4bn) investment.
