Nissan Motor Co. launched Wednesday a Venucia brand electric vehicle in China, becoming the first Japanese automaker to sell such an environment-friendly car in the world's largest vehicle market.

Nissan aims to take a 20 percent share of the Chinese market for electric vehicles by 2018, where it expects growth in demand for such cars in a country plagued by air pollution.

The Venucia e30, a five-seat hatchback, was developed by a joint venture with Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Co., based on the platform and technologies used to make the Leaf electric car it launched in Japan in 2010.