Electric cars for everyone?

As an employee of Carnegie Mellon, I found our discussion w/Bruce Hanington quite interesting and close to home. More specifically, I work in the College of Engineering and am familiar with the Master in Product Development program co-directed by Prof. Jon Cagan.  I actually assist with the course scheduling for the IPD course (Integrated Product Design), so I've worked with Jon directly.  I thought to myself, "what cool projects are these students working on now, and how could they relate to this course?" =)

This past spring, Nissan teamed up with CMU students from the IPD course to help design, update, and engineer new features for their electric car called the LEAF. 
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnegie-mellon-nissan-team-up-for-electric-vehicles-93068629.html

Nissan states that the LEAF is designed for the "mass market" and is designed "to meet the driving needs of the majority of U.S. drivers."  The net cost will be as low as $25,280 with the MSRP totaling $32,780.  To me this price is more geared to the full time working adult/family opposed to students or young adults just starting out in the work force.

The students involved with the project came up with many creative ideas and concepts, some of which Nissan hopes to use in the future, barring variable costs.  Some ideas include a cargo-area organizer which would include a refrigerator to store cold groceries, along with various ergonomic features including a shoulder-massage and a posture-improving seat that senses incorrect posture to name a few.
http://www.autoobserver.com/2010/05/nissan-cmu-already-working-on-how-to-improve-next-leaf-ev.html#more
Many of these ideas made me wonder if anyone is attempting to introduce electric cars into developing countries. I thought about our discussion of the Nano and also about the readings we had for this week that showcased cellphones and hand held computers.  The human-focused design of the students' ideas for the LEAF are similar to those of a "frugal engineer" (although the LEAF is not very frugal).

After some digging, I could not find any company or venture that is actively pursuing the launch of electric cars in developing countries.  I found that Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General shared my wonder about this idea, as he stated, "I find electric cars very interesting ... but how do you ensure that the new technology is also available to 3rd world, so they don't repeat mistakes of past? How do they get electric car?"  He was commenting on the Clinton Global Initiative.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/why-kofi-annan-is-skeptical-about-electric-cars.php

It seems that people could benefit from electric cars, more specifically in countries like India and Africa where the population is quite large and travel is mainly on foot.  Did TATA consider an electric car when designing the Nano? It may be a better option, as it would require no gas and create zero emissions.

Similarly, I found a company called EGG Energy that created a Battery Sharing program to be implemented in developing countries, more specifically in Africa.  EGG worked with a team from MIT and Harvard to bridge the power distribution gap. 

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/battery-sharing-developing-nations.html


Could a program like this help with the charging of electric cars in those countries?  I would like to see the IPD students extend their work with the electric car to focus on the social impact they could have in developing countries.