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Nissan produces 150 millionth car, gears up for launch of new Leaf

Nissan has achieved a major milestone this week by producing its 150 millionth vehicle. It’s a feat that has taken the Japanese automaker 84 years to accomplish, which it attributes to the conitnued support from all of its stakeholders worldwide, legion of employees, dealers, suppliers and loyal customers.

The automaker managed to produce its 100 millionth vehicle in 2006 and at the time, 76.5% of the total vehicles that Nissan made, came from Japan. In the following years, it opted to localise production based on their respective markets, which helped bolster yearly sales figures even further.

That, Nissan said, was the catalyst that allowed it to build another 50 million vehicles in the span of just 11 years. And now, 76.5% that bear the Nissan name, are made outside of Japan with 13% of them being produced in Europe.

It has been producing vehicles in Spain and the UK for the past 30 years. And since its St. Petersburg plant in Russia opened 10 years ago, Nissan has been making full use of these facilities to feed the demands of the continent.

Currently, Nissan is gearing up to introduced its second generation Leaf, a name that is remembered by many as the first mass-produced family sized electric car in the world. Introduced in 2010, the car received a lukewarm welcome, thanks to a less than stellar range and worldwide infrastructure that wasn’t ready for the EV revolution.

This new car however, will feature some of the latest safety tech and offer an improved range over the first generation Leaf. This, coupled with new infrastruce to support electric vehicles, will help increase demand for the new Leaf.

If proven true, Nissan will be on track to have an excellent year. And it wont be long before the Japanese automaker announces that its 200 millionth vehicle rolled off the production line somewhere in the world.

Nissan unveils the new Leaf for global markets

Nissan has unveiled the highly anticipated second generation EV, the Leaf. Building on the success of its predecessor that burst onto the scene in 2010, the new car aims to be the smartest electric vehicle on the market.

Though it features the same basic silhouette as its predecessor, the car has been given a completely new look. Gone is the fish eye-like front end and in its place, a more contemporary look with sharp projector headlights that meet the narrow yet prominent V motion chrome grille.

The new Leaf stills sports the swept back look of its predecessor but seems to feature a sportier side profile thanks to a pair of decent side skirts and a two-tone paint scheme. This theme is carried to the rear as well because part of the hatch has a gloss black finish.

It also features more angular but less prominent rear taillights that are smaller than its predecessor. The bottom section of the rear bumper resembles that of a diffuser, but we aren’t sure whether its fully-functional or just there for vanity purposes.

Fitted at the base of the car is a higher density battery pack that is about 40% more efficient than the one fitted to the 2010 car. As such it enables the new Leaf to cover a distance of 378km on a single charge.

Nissan is very proud of the car’s e-powertrain, which offers better efficiency and is able to deliver 148bhp and 320Nm of torque. The smart thing about the new car is that it is able to charge as and when necessary as well as when tariffs are lower.

The car can also feed power back into the power grid and power your home during the day to help reduce your electricity bill. Though these features won’t be beneficial in all global markets, it will help owners in places where sufficient infrastructure is in place to support EVs.

As expected, the new Leaf comes with all the latest tech which include ProPILOT, ProPILOT Park and e-Pedal. ProPILOT is an intelligent autonomous system that keeps the car in its respective lane as well as at a safe distance from the vehicle at the front. It uses mutiple ultrasound sensors to offer drivers extra security especially on long journeys.

ProPILOT Park, allow the Leaf to manouver into parking spots without the need for human intervention. Though this is nothing revolutionary, it still is impressive to witness. Lastly, there’s the e-Pedal. This system will enable the car to decelerate without the driver pressing the brake pedal.

When a driver lifts his/her foot off the accelerator pedal, the regenerative braking feature kicks allowing the car to gradually come to a complete stop. It works by applying regenerative and friction brakes automatically, which even works for steep inclinations.

This new Leaf will go on sale in Japan in October of this year with deliveries for other parts of the world slated for the beginning of 2017. Nissan aims to sell this car in more than 60 markets globally, which should include Malaysia.

New Nissan Leaf to make debut in September

Nissan has revealed a few more details regarding its next generation all-electric vehicle, the Leaf. According to the manufacturer, the new car will feature an all new design and be packed with a slew of advanced safety tech.

Unlike the previous generation one, the new Leaf seems to take on a more angular yet functional design, which should give rise to a more aggressive overall look. And by building on the positive attributes of its predecessor, the new car is said offer a quiet and plaint ride while cruising.

The car will come with integrated ‘Intelligent Mobility’ technologies that will help enhance the vision of drivers and allow them to spot hidden dangers ahead of time. This system will also provide them with a better sense of their surroundings, which may help them be more vigilant while driving.

Regarding the interior, Nissan is still being rather vague when it comes to the layout and tech of the cabin. It was only willing to disclose that the car would have ‘Premium interiors designed to suit your taste offer a touch more comfort’.

The world premier of the Nissan Leaf will take place on September 6th, 2017 in Japan. Touted as the first mass-produced electric vehicle, the original Leaf received a lukewarm welcome from car buyers. Despite being revolutionary at the time, the car lacked the appeal and practicality that many regular petrol powered cars had at the time.

However, Nissan should have all that sorted those issues with the new car because competition is going to be ever stiffer as more and more mainstream manufactures jump on the EV bandwagon. Stay tuned and we will let you know more once the car is launched.

Prototype 9 finally revealed to the masses

Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury arm, has finally unveiled its pet project, the retro sports car that was touted for being a modern interpretation of vintage racer. Called Prototype 9, the car is said to be a celebration of Nissan and Infiniti’s ingenuity, artistry and craftsmanship.

It’s basically a 1940s racer, reimagined through the eyes of Infinit’s current designers and engineers. It began as an ‘after-hours’ project where the automaker’s employees would devote a considerable amount of their leisure time into making this car a reality.

Sporting the same basic dimensions of the racing cars of 1940s, Prototype 9 has a rather squarish tubular design at the front that morphs into more of a rounded one towards the rear. Also a nice a touch, is the massive finned front grille design that is reminiscent of custom American hot rods.

But what’s unique about it is the metallic trim panel that stretches across the entire grille and meets the bodywork of the front axles. In terms of looks, Infiniti broke convention with the car’s paint scheme. Unlike most concepts, this one has a matte silver finish that is similar to what the Silver Arrows racers used to have back in the day.

In total, the car is 4,330mm long, 1,820mm wide and 910mm high with a ground clearance of 65mm. It’s a pretty big vehicle but its overall weight, including the powertrain, weighs about 890kg, which should make it an agile vehicle around corners.

The car has a leading-arm rigid axle with transverse leaf spring front suspension and a De Dion axle with transverse leaf spring for the rear. And despite it being an electric car, it does not have power steering.

Regarding Prototype 9, Alfonso Albaisa, Senior Vice President, Global Design, said, “Prototype 9 celebrates the tradition of ingenuity, craftsmanship and passion of our forebears at Nissan, on whose shoulders we stand today. It started as a discussion – what if INFINITI had created a race car in the 1940s?”

He then added, “If one were to imagine an open-wheeled INFINITI racer on the famous circuits of the era, such as Japan’s Tamagawa Speedway, what would that look like? The sketches were stunning and the idea so compelling that we had to produce a prototype. As other departments became aware of this, they volunteered their time to create a working vehicle.”

Under the rather suave handmade exterior sits a steel ladder frame that should be period correct for the 1940s but be more rigid thanks to modern construction methods and the use of tougher materials.

The car is powered by a single speed powertrain that delivers 148bhp and 320Nm of torque to the rear wheels. Juice is supplied to the motor via a Lithium-ion battery pack and as such, the car is capable of sprinting from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds and reaching a top speed of 170km/h.

Infiniti will probably use this car as a design study or a show piece of the talents and capabilities of its design and engineering teams. We doubt that Prototype 9 will be of any use to Nissan’s road-going vehicles in any point in its lifetime.

Nissan to sell battery business to GSR Capitol

There’s going to be a bit of a shake up at Nissan’s EV division. According to a statement by the automaker, it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with GSR Capital (GSR), a private investment fund, for the sale of Nissan’s electric battery operations and production facilities to GSR.

This agreement includes Nissan’s battery subsidiary, Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), as well as battery manufacturing operations in Tennessee and Sunderland. The one in Tennessee is owned by Nissan North America Inc., while the one in Sunderland belongs to Nissan Motor Manufacturing (U.K.) Ltd.

The sale includes assets such as part of Nissan’s Japanese battery development and production engineering operations located in Oppama, Atsugi and Zama. This is a major move for the automaker considering its position as a pioneer in mass production of EVs for global markets.

Speaking of the sale, Hiroto Saikawa, president and chief executive officer of Nissan, said, “This is a win-win for AESC and Nissan. It enables AESC to utilize GSR’s wide networks and proactive investment to expand its customer base and further increase its competitiveness.”

Saikawa later added, “In turn, this will further enhance Nissan’s EV competitiveness. AESC will remain a very important partner for Nissan as we deepen our focus on designing and producing market-leading electric vehicles.”

Nissan’s current workforce at all facilities that have been acquired by GSR, which include the production plans, will be maintained. Apart from that, both the headquarters and development centers of the business will remain in Japan too, with no relocation plans for the time being.

We aren’t too sure how the effect of the sale will eventually pan out, but we do hope it doesn’t disrupt Nissan’s current plans of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for electric vehicles both on the race track as well as off it.

Nissan invents new feature for backseat reminders

Has there ever been an instance when you absentmindedly left something, food or groceries, overnight in the back seat of your car? It’s an annoyingly common mistake that has has often times resulted in you dealing with a foul odor in your cabin for the next several days.

Well, Nissan USA might have a solution for you in the form of a backseat reminder. Called the Rear Door Alert or RDA, this system monitors the opening and closing of the rear doors as well as you the driver’s movement.

If it detects that the rear door has been opened prior to a journey, but the driver, who once reaches his/her destination, attempts to shut off the engine and walk away without opening one of the rear doors, the vehicle will promptly remind them with an alert.

The system will respond with a series of notifications, beginning with a reminder message on the instrument cluster, and if ignored, the vehicle will then respond by activating the horn at a lower intensity and at short intervals.

It will defer from patterns used to inform drivers of other vehicular functions, so as not to confuse the driver when responding to the alert message.

The automaker admits that there will be many different types of scenarios in which a driver might open the rear door to check for something, throw in a gym bag or just to make sure that the door is shut properly.

As such, this RDA system has been designed to be turned off temporarily or permanently through prompts in the cluster display. This will allow the owner more flexibility of adapting to the system without it becoming over bearing or a mild annoyance for those who have no use for it.

The idea to include such an ingenious feature was thought up by two mums at Nissan. they were Elsa Foley, an industrial engineer and mother of two young children, and Marlene Mendoza, a mechanical engineer and mother of three.

This duo decided that a safety net/third eye was needed especially for mothers who have a lot on their plates. It would help avoid silly, but costly mistakes for those who are preoccupied with other matters while exiting the vehicle.

Speaking of the feature, Foley said, We pushed each other along and knew we were on the right track one morning when Marlene discovered she had left a pan of lasagna in the back seat of her car one night after coming home after a long day at the office. The worst thing was the car smelled for days, but it made me ask myself, ‘what if that had been something else back there?”

According to the automaker, the first of its vehicles to receive the RDA system is the 2018 Pathfinder. it will also be made available on other upcoming models in Nissan’s product line in the near future.

Despite the rather basic and rudimentary nature of the method of operation, one can’t help but wonder why so many supposed family focused vehicles, lack this feature. It’s more of a necessity rather than an option, and we hope that it eventually becomes standard equipment on many mainstream models.

Nissan reveals details about the new Leaf

Nissan has announced that a new and more efficient version of the Leaf will be due for release sometime in the near future. Nothing is set in stone yet, and the only image that the automaker has made available is a detailed outline of the actual car.

According to the company, the new Leaf’s body will feature improved and more efficient aerodynamics. This will help it reduce drag when in motion and remain more stable at higher speeds. The car’s bodywork will also allow it to withstand strong crosswinds without being dragged off its path, which is a very dangerous situation to be in.

This new design is said to have been inspired by airplane wings and the physics behind their method of operation. Utilizing the lessons learnt from the aerospace industry, Nissan’s engineers were able to recreate the ideal shape for the new Leaf. It will have a symmetric air flow that will help it cut through the air for a more smoother and efficient journey.

Cleaner and more streamlined design characteristics are of great importance when it comes to electric cars. Due to the limited battery pack capacity and the time it takes to recharge one, every kilometer gained through better efficiency can be extremely beneficial to the car’s practicality.

This coupled with an improved electrified powertrain should provide the new Leaf with a respectable range on a single charge. The new car has a lot to live up to considering that the original one was the first electric car to be mass produced. And with companies like Tesla making ever efficient EVs, Nissan will definitely want the new Leaf to perform well.

We believe that this is an exciting time for electric cars as more and more mainstream automakers jump on the electrified bandwagon in a bid to outdo each other. and this will benefit us, the consumer, the most. Ever stiffer competition between manufacturers mean that EVs will get better and better with each passing year.

Nissan BladeGlider to showcase its capabilities at Goodwood

Nissan’s rather bizzare zero emissions prototype, the BladeGlider will make an appearance at the on going Goodwood Festival of Speed both to showcase its driving capabilities as well as kept on display for the viewing of the general public. The car is meant to showcase what future performance cars might adopt in the not so distant future.

Speaking of the vehicle’s appearnce at Goodwood, Ponz Pandikuthira, vice president Product Planning, Nissan Europe, said, “The BladeGlider has been developed to bring fun, torque, efficiency and high-performance styling to the fore. Goodwood has been a world-famous showcase for many an iconic sports car over the years, so we could think of no better place to bring the BladeGlider out to play, demonstrating the Nissan Intelligent Mobility vision in action.”

First introduced at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2013, the Nissan BladeGlider is said to combine an all-electric powertrain with an efficiently designed body to offer copious amounts of driving pleasure while being as environmentally friendly as possible.

Unlike most cars, the BladeGlider features a narrowed design (three seat configuration) with the front end width being much shorter than that of the rear. Nissan purposefully designed it this way to offer optimum aerodynamic efficiency and handling stability. Despite what the automaker might say, the rear-hinged dihedral doors, though impressive, exists solely for vanity purposes.

Since it doesn’t have a roof, the BladeGlider’s body is reinforced with an integrated roll-over protection structure, that will help protect its occupants in the event of a roll over during a crash.

Most of the controls and switchgear as well as the digital meters are mounted on the steering wheel, which ensure that the driver’s hands are always kept on the steering wheel. Information that is displayed on it include speed, state of battery charge, regeneration mode and torque map. There are two centrally mounted screens that take the place of conventional side mirrors, with the images being fed to them by rear-view cameras mounted just behind the front wheels.

The Powertrain of the car was designed by Williams Advanced Engineering which consists of two 120kW (268bhp) electric motors (juice is supplied by a 22kW battery), one on each wheel. The BladeGlider is able to reach speeds in excess of 190km/h, and accelerate from 0-100km/h in under 5 seconds, which isn’t record breaking, but is quite impressive for an unconventional car.

Power is distributed to each of the front wheels trhough a torque vectoring system, which shifts power to the wheel that needs it most. If the car begins to understeer, more power will be sent to the outer wheel to compensate for the forces, enabling the car to regain a proper balance.

The BladeGlider is an odd take on the performance car genre, and how wheel it pans out for Nissan remains to be seen. But it won’t be the only car that will be showcased by the Japanese automaker because it will be accompanied by the GT-R NISMO as well as the MY17 GT-R.

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