While Detroit's Big Three automakers may be struggling for their very survival, the domestic manufacturers aren't the only ones suffering from the current car market downturn.

The sharp slump in light truck sales have slammed hard two of the Japanese Big Three, including Toyota, which has already announced sharp cuts in pickup production, and Nissan, which is scaling back production of both pickups, like the big Titan, and its various SUVs.

And now, Nissan reveals, it is offering buyouts to 6,000 of the workers at its two Tennessee assembly plants. That comes as a shock in a state that has seen its automotive workforce rise rapidly, in recent years.

Some of those standing to be offered a buyout option could get packages consisting of up to $125,000 in cash, along with benefits like discount car purchases.

The move follows recent steps to bring capacity more in line with diminished demand. Among other things, Nissan will eliminate a night shift at one of the truck lines. But the automaker, like its Japanese rivals, has pointedly stressed that it doesn't plan any layoffs. Other than those who accept buyouts, the company plans to find alternative work for any excess employees.

Ironically, the tough news comes just a week after Nissan dedicated its all-new U.S. headquarters, located in a suburb of Nashville. It moved to Tennessee, two years ago, ostensibly to reduce costs and put its American corporate offices closer to its primary production center.

The cuts keep coming at General Motors. The automaker will eliminate yet another 117,000 light trucks from its production plans for the rest of the year. That's on top of earlier reductions that means GM will shave a total of 287,000 SUVs and pickups from its U.S. total for 2008.

The latest news brings to 1,760 the number of layoffs that will result from GM's cutbacks. The automaker is eliminating shifts at some plants and trimming back elsewhere, it has revealed, as part of a turnaround plan that requires it to trim billions of dollars in costs - and bring production capacity in line with what the sluggish American market is actually asking for.

GM is by no means alone. Ford and Chrysler are also making major cuts in light truck production - reflecting the impact of the gas price crunch. Since the beginning of the year, full-size pickups, in particular, have lost about a third of their market share - a problem complicated by the slump in U.S. housing.

Even import makers Nissan and Toyota are feeling the pinch. The latter Japanese marque has scheduled significant downtime at its Tundra plant in San Antonio, and will pull additional production of that big pickup out of a second factory in Indiana. Nissan is sharply scaling back light truck production, meanwhile, at its own assembly line, in Canton, Mississippi.

While Ford CEO Alan Mulally said he expects some rebound as the economy recovers, he cautioned it is unlikely the big pickup segment will ever reach its former peak.

Bent on charging up the electric vehicle industry, Nissan and its French partner, Renault, have launched a battery power program in Portugal, the latest in a series of cutting-edge EV projects for the Japanese maker.

Portugal will be one of the first countries to market, starting in 2011 with a unique, all-electric vehicle, announced Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, during an appearance in Lisbon.

"Portugal has become a leading country in renewable energy. This agreement with Renault-Nissan will place Portugal also on the front line in terms of sustainable mobility with zero-emission vehicles. Promoting electric cars in Portugal will reduce our dependence on imported oil and will contribute to a cleaner environment," said Prime Minister José Sócrates.

The latest announcement follows Nissan's decision to launch pilot EV programs in Israel and Denmark. Those two countries are particularly attractive because of their small size and their desire to reduce the use of costly imported oil. Portugal has the added advantage that it has been making a major push into wind and other forms of "green" energy.

Meanwhile, Ghosn, who has declared electric power a top priority, is promising to put an all-electric vehicle on sale to U.S. fleet customers by 2011. Nissan hopes to open the market to retail buyers two years later.

"We believe the ultimate solution to sustainable mobility will be the mass availability of zero-emission vehicles," said Ghosn, during his meeting with Prime Minister Socrates.

Exactly what the new EVs will look like, Nissan officials aren't yet saying. They hint they will be unique and clearly recognizable vehicles, much as Toyota has created with its Prius hybrid. But they aren't likely to be quite as radical as the quirky little Pivo2, shown above, that Nissan introduced last autumn at the 2008 Tokyo Motor Show.

How quickly times change. Only a matters of months ago, it seems, we were bombarded by ads touting products by the numbers: horsepower, for example, 0-60 times, or cubic feet of cargo space. Well, actually, we're hearing a lot more numbers now; what with $4-a-gallon gas, manufacturers are suddenly touting miles per gallon. But according to the folks at Consumer Reports magazine, that's no more effective a way to buy a new, fuel-efficient vehicle than basing your decision on its top speed.

In its latest issue, the CR folks have come up with an interesting way of figuring out your savings, but you want to have a calculator at hand. They took the sticker price of each vehicle and divided it by the rated mpg. Using that metric, the Honda Fit Sport ranked first, with a fuel-efficiency price of $464 mpg. The standard Fit came in a close second, at $476 per mpg. The oft-touted Toyota Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid-electric vehicle, was rated third, in the study, at $540. Perhaps surprisingly, only three hybrids made the Top Ten list: two versions of the Prius, along with the Honda Civic Hybrid.

"Just because a vehicle is fuel-efficient doesn't necessarily mean it's cheaper to live with. If you want a car with great gas mileage and must make every dollar count, look for a vehicle with a low price per mpg."

As we've also pointed out at TCC over the years, CR stresses that fuel economy is only one of the figures you should factor into your purchase equation. Look at things like depreciation, insurance premiums, repair and maintenance costs, and other factors. Be especially careful, we need to stress, if you're thinking about trading in a big gas-guzzler for something small and fuel-efficient. It might seem like a logical move, these days, but not if you haven't paid off that loan yet. You could wind up being "upside down," owing on your old car, as well as the new one. And those added costs could more than offset any savings on fuel.

Here's the CR Top Ten list:

1. Honda Fit Sport (manual): $464
2. Honda Fit (base): $476
3. Toyota Prius (base): $540
4. Mazda3 I (manual): $576
5. Toyota Prius Touring: $591
6. Nissan Versa 1.8 SL: $596
7. Honda Civic Hybrid: $605
8. Honda Civic EX (manual): $607
9. Hyundai Elantra GLS: $650
10. Scion tC (base): $658

Who killed the EV? Well, it's beginning to look like reports of the death of the battery car were, to paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.

As TheCarConnection noted in an exclusive April report, Nissan/Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has declared the electric vehicle his company's No. 1 priority, with plans to launch an American version by the beginning of the next decade. (The quirky battery car concept, Pivo 2, is shown above.)

Now the trans-Pacific automaker's French rival, PSA Peugeot-Citroen SA, is getting into the game. PSA acknowledges it is in discussions with another, unnamed automaker aimed at creating a joint venture that would lead to the development of new electric vehicle technology.

The French company has actually been one of the few true believers in EVs, which it manufactured from 1995 to 2005. PSA sold about 10,000 of them before it was ordered to stop producing outdated and environmentally risky nickel-cadmium batteries.

Like the rest of the industry, Peugeot-Citroen is expected to adopt newer, high-power lithium-ion batteries for future EV programs.