Dongfeng Motor, a 50-50 joint venture of Nissan Motor Co. and Dongfeng Group, has not yet set a launch date for the sale or production of the Leaf in China.

"We'd like to make (the Leaf) locally as early as possible," company President Kimiyasu Nakamura said in an interview with Kyodo News. "We'd like to study (production timing) by looking into sales volume and government measures to boost car purchases."

On May 26, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters in Smyrna, Tennessee, that he won't introduce the Leaf in China without government subsidies. "The day they decide, we'll have to make a decision on whether to got or not go," Ghosn said. "When a government is interested, they call us. We don't call them."

 On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that China's government has indeed started offering incentives to automakers that sell plug-in hybrids and electric cars in five cities.

In Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei, the government is giving as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,300) for the purchase of a plug-in hybrid car and as much as 60,000 yuan ($8,800) for the purchase of an electric car.

The incentives were outlined on the Ministry of Finance's Web site. However, it was not immediately clear whether Nissan will consider these incentives to be sufficient.

Currently, the Leaf is produced only in Japan. Last week, Nissan launched construction of an assembly plant in Tennessee. So far, 13,000 U.S. customers have placed deposits on the Leaf, which will go on sale in the U.S. in December.

That same month, the Leaf also will go on sale in Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands, followed by Ireland and Great Britain in February.

The Leaf, a five-door hatchback, can go up to 160 kilometers on one charge. In Japan, the Leaf will sell for 3.8 million yen, or $40,000.

Separately, Nakamura predicted that industry car sales in China will top 15 million units this year. Nissan had set a sales target of 1 million units for the year. But now Nakamura expects to hit that target by November.