A week before it shows the world what its new dedicated electric vehicle will look like, Nissan is showing off its latest-generation prototype. The company’s previous iteration was based on the original Cube, but the new test units are based on the Versa/Tiida. A 108 horsepower / 206 pound-feet electric motor designed in-house at Nissan drives the front wheels, while a lithium ion battery pack created by Automotive Energy Supply Corp. stores electricity. The 24 kWh pack is fitted under the floor and is expected to yield a 100-mile range.
Nissan is aiming to make life as stress-free as possible for its EV drivers. To that end, the navigation system will automatically display the driving radius that the current battery state of charge will support. It can also download information about currently available charging stations. Drivers can also access the charging status of their cars remotely via a cell phone, so no doubt an iPhone app will be on the way…
The iPhone app has been confirmed. Har.
From the press release:
The timer function enables the air-conditioner or battery charging to begin at a specified time. The air-conditioner can be pre-set while the vehicle is plugged-in to cool the cabin to a desirable temperature before driving begins, without taxing the vehicle’s battery. Meanwhile, the battery charging can be set to start at a specified time at night to benefit from more favorable electricity rates…
Nissan plans to unveil the design of the production EV at its new Global Headquarters Opening in Yokohama on August 2nd. A Nissan Zero-emission Website will also go live on Aug. 2nd.
Nissan says the EV-11 will retail for under $30,000. And that’s before the federal tax credit of $7,500.
The batteries are representing a huge environmental challenge and concern. The low efficiency is also troubling.
It is sad to see the “environmentalist” pushing so hard to destroy the environment!
I hope your 8th grade teacher doesn’t mind you surfing the Web. Better you should study a little and realize how ignorant you are.
Google is your friend – for the latest peer-reviewed info, for example, on lower carbon emissions overall from electric vehicles.
soooooooooo how well do these batteries perform in a cold climate?
# 1 lithium ion tech is organic so what is the environmental issue with it?
100 mile range, but drops to 15 if you plug in your Iphone or Ipod Touch.
It is a homely little potato. Nissan is about the only Japanese manufacturer remaining who hasn’t hired a modern, hip design agency – at least for the U.S. market.
Cripes. Imagine where Toyota and Honda would be if they stuck with their original styles? Like, your father’s Buick.
BRING IT. WE WANT! The technology will get better with time. Do you thin the first gas cars were as strong as the cars today?
Why do these car always have to look like Japanese beer cans? Where are the cars normal people want to drive.
The Tesla is nice, but $$$$
How about a full-size car? Funny, news said this morning that people are getting fatter, if that’s true, why are cars not getting bigger?
Now all we need is a solar panel on the roof. Naaa… the energy companies will never allow it.
I wish these Japanese makers could make a good looking automobile someday. How about an electric mini pickup? An electric station wagon type thing? The Honda Element would be in my driveway now if it was electric or hybrid. The Prius is the f-ing UGLIEST piece of shit I have ever seen. Next to the Pontiac Aztec of a few years back. I might buy a Prius if they looked decent. Now, they look like a SEGWAY scooter. Makes you look like a jerk riding either one. Really. Who the hell BUYS Segways and Prius’s? Jerks, mostly.
They need that ugly look to get their fuel efficiency. Plus, environmentalism is a religion, and these electric cars and hybrids need to look weird as a way for the owners to wear their religion on their sleeve.
GM’s management never understood this, so they did poorly even though they had the most hybrid models.
#10 – Cripes you are ignorant. Go have a Ford dealer explain the difference between a hybrid – and a piece of shit Saturn or Silverado that has barely enough electric assist to increase mileage 10%.
Dude – don’t try to explain anything – including aerodynamics – to a dork who thinks trickle-down means anything more than Republicans pissing on people who work for a living.
The batteries cost what? 5,000 maybe 10,000 and how many times can you recharge them before they don’t hold a charge or you get 20% fewer miles?
My car is ten years old and may be good for another ten at least for me. How many times would I need to replace those batteries? Are lithium batteries non toxic and or completely recyclable? It got down to 5 below 0F last year at my house. Would this thing work?
The electricity comes from where? The grid and you get your power from by burning what?
If you have an infinitely rechargeable capacitor you would have something. As it is…
This is a great product for San Francisco and Washington DC or at least the elite who live there. For now you are welcome to play with them.
Let me know when its ready for prime time.
do-ill==as normal you confuse your own personal perceived wants/desires/needs with the population in general.
Different segments of a market want different things. How large should a market segment be before a vendor steps up to provide it?
What percentage of people live/work in mild climates where a second or even first car would be driven less than 100 miles per day? 50%?
How percentage of people can maintain their life styles based on $5/gal gas? 5%.
Come back if you need help with the math along with everything else.
One of the problems with these vehicles is air conditioning. In the South AC is more important than heat. The compressor and fans kills the batteries. Yes I remember the days without AC in hot and humid locales. A two block trip would leave you soaking with sweat and covered with road dust. My second car had dealer installed AC that would freeze a side of beef in 10 minutes.
Home/office air-conditioners stress enough of the country in the summer (because of all that global warming), major cities regularly have brownouts….now we’re going to add a couple million autos to that strain?
Maybe life would be different if the environmentalist hadn’t stopped power plants from being built in the last 20 years….cause they pollute.
Oh well, getting stranded in a town cause your car can only go 20 miles on a charge in hot weather…waiting for the town to get back on the grid after a brown out – would be something we all could suffer with IF we didn’t have oil.
Just don’t see the point in the exercise.
On the other hand, it does give those greedy liberal profit mongers a little something extra to line their hypocrite pockets with.
It’s either that or the gas guzzling penile extensions made by Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Another iPhone app, iCryChiropractor!, will determine how much damage you have suffered from contorting yourself in this craptastic clown car.
P.S. “Wong” (commenter above) is right: Midgets like him would view a larger, normal-size vehicle as a penile extension.
Yet another iPhone app, iCryChiropractor!, will determine how much injury you have suffered from contorting yourself in this clown car.
P.S. Ahole Wong (commenter above) is correct: Midgets like him would view a larger, normal-size vehicle as a penile extension.
Ok, so Nissan wanted to make it look like the Cube, then switched to make it look like the Versa? These car companies can’t be this stupid can they?
Lets see, Nissan had in the past, only in other countries, a tuner car called the Skyline. They’re bringing it to America and it’s calld the GT-R. Well the GT-R is nice but quite uglier than the Skyline of years past.
Nonetheless, why not go with the old Skyline body shape, or even the GT-R (it’s not that bad). Or even the 370z body or the Maxima body styles are kinda nice. No they like the Versa, gimmee a break.
And also, 200 to 300hp and at least 300+ mile range, don’t even bother putting it out til you get to at least that.
108hp and a little nav system that, in the end, is telling me where I “can’t” go! Yay, I’m holding my breath Nissan!
This technology can’t “really” take this long to develop. Give us something worth buying, keep it under $60,000 and arrange longer term financing. People can pay a higher monthly payment when they are off gasoline. Electricity is very cheap, for now anyway.
Not even going to get into arguing the fact that there are ways you could rarely to never have to recharge at all.
Longwinded rant, sorry but this crap we’re being spoon fed pisses me off!
So has anyone considered what the electromagnetic field generated by a 24 kWh power plant might do to your body over time? That has to be a lot of current, thus a strong magnetic field. Is it shielded? That would add to the weight and adversely affect the energy economy.
This is a pretty straightforward post. I do not understand the rationale for the back-and-forth vitriol. I blame Obama.
Good point #20. There should be a study done on Tesla Roadster owners to see if any strange cancer trends are popping up.
Change good point #20 to good point #21, seems some comments don’t get posted immediately causing renumbering and leaving it looking like I am telling myself that I have a good point.
I blame WordPress for this. May not be right (could be the blog comment moderation effect) but gotta blame someone.
Need to start referencing the name, title of comment, brief description, and I guess “general area of numbering” of comment I am referencing I guess.