In preparation for its official unveiling at the upcoming Paris Motor Show, Renault has released some teaser images of the DeZir all-electric concept sports car. Appealing to the growing population of green automotive enthusiasts (myself included), Renault says the DeZir "is proof that environmental concern and a love for cars are by no means incompatible."

Although the DeZir is purely a concept car at this point, Renault is strongly hinting that it shows not only the direction they plan on heading with sports cars in the future, but that it is indicative of a new overarching design and styling philosophy across the entire Renault brand.

In concept form, the DeZir has a mid-mounted battery and electric motor, to place most of the mass of the vehicle in its center of gravity and increase handling performance characteristics. The DeZir uses the same electric motor as the rest of Renault-Nissan's upcoming EVs (including the LEAF), but says they've figured out a way to "uprate" the torque and horsepower to improve acceleration resulting in a 0-60 time of about 5 seconds. The big front and rear scoops aren't just for show either; they apparently help to channel air and cool the batteries.

Wondering how all of this might apply to regular, every day plug-ins? Well, rest assured, all of this concept car hoopla has some application to reality. Those of us following the Nissan LEAF know full well that Nissan is only one part of the equation in the Renault-Nissan Alliance. In the past Renault-Nissan CEO and President Carlos Ghosn has even gone so far as to say that the only way the Alliance could pull off its electric car world domination strategy was due to the global capacity of the entire Alliance.

Reading between the lines, what this means is that the scale and reach of the alliance's distribution system is large enough for them to develop a common EV platform and tailor it for different markets with different interior/exterior skins around the world all while achieving huge capacity quickly. After all, Renault-Nissan wants to be producing (and selling) 500,000 EVs globally by the end of 2013.

Although both Renault and Nissan have the same high level executive team, they sport vastly different design philosophies. In the past, Renault-Nissan's Global Zero Emissions Vehicle chief, Hideaki Watanabe, has told me that this was by design—let each member of the alliance "respect the brand." As Mr. Watanabe told me at a Nissan even last year, “Our Nissan vehicles will be Nissan DNAed vehicles, our Renault vehicles will be Renault DNAed vehicles. We’re not going to mix the two brands together. As an alliance we are able to offer to the market various concepts with DNAs of Nissan and DNAs of Renault. That’s one benefit that we can have by implementing a joint zero emissions strategy.”

Yet, even so, if Renault is hinting at a brand new design philosophy surrounding electric cars, you can bet that Nissan is thinking similarly. Already with the Nissan LEAF we see a dramatic departure from what most Nissans look like. Could the DeZir hint at the shape of a future Infiniti electric car? Could be... it sure is different enough to clearly set it apart from your average Infiniti.