Despite also working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Nissan will go for electric first. Nissan is planning to sell electric vehicles (EVs) around the world by the year 2012 (with production version fleet tests beginning 2010), and the Nissan Denki Cube Concept displayed at the 2008 British International Motor Show is an example of such an EV.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that to remain cost effective (Nissan wants an immediate profit upon EV introduction), electric cars will have to be modular and be configured differently according to each country’s needs. He gave an example: an EV in the US would need a range of at least 160km to be practical but an European market EV would do fine with an 80km range. Different communities also have different tolerances for how long they have to wait to recharge their car.
He stressed on the fact that Nissan’s new cars would be pure electric vehicles. “I don’t want a range extender. I don’t want another hybrid. It’s not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It’s going to be zero emissions.” The Nissan electric drivetrain will also be shared with Renault. Renault and Nissan aim to jointly sell 1 million electric cars a year, though they did not mention by when they hope this goal can be met.
In the US, Nissan would begin its EV trials in the state of Tennessee in the year 2011. Nissan is now working with the Tennessee Valley Authority electricity company to study and develop the infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles. This infrastructure included the possibility of charging stations being set up around the state so you could charge your car (and pay for charging it) anywhere other than home. Similiar deals have also been signed with Portugal, Israel and Denmark. Talks are being held with other parties in North America, Europe and Asia.
Nissan’s BIMS 2008 concept car (shown above and after the jump) takes a standard Nissan Cube and replaces its 1.3 litre internal combustion engine with an electric motor hooked up to lithium ion batteries located under the floor and seats. The batteries are from Automotive Energy Supply Corp, a JV company between Nissan and NEC.
Edaran Tan Chong Motor executive director Dr Ang Bon Beng said that ETCM is in talks with Nissan to offer a range of Nissan electric cars here in 2015, three years after the EV range’s planned 2012 global launch. Hopefully our automotive market will be more “liberalised” by then so these can be enjoyed by the public at affordable prices. JPJ also needs to figure out road tax for electric motors.
PHOTO GALLERY: Nissan Denki Cube Concept
Click thumbnails to view high resolution photo
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
whats with the lightning on the grille….so weird.
but to implement it here by 2015 is too optimistic.
with the way our economy is going south, i say 2020.
and is there any country in the world right now where electric vehicles are commonplace?
Lovely design wat?…
The limiting factor here would be range. Cool for urban commutes but you can’t jump in and drive to Penang and back.
2015 is a good target for electric vehicles to hit us, they might look hi tech and expensive now but by then the oil price will rise so sharply that we’ll have to rely on other modes of power like electric, hydrogen and biodiesel… the range for electric cars should be better for the future anyway as battery technology improves. Running an electric car might end up cheaper than normal petrol one
That is one seriously nice car… the fact that it’s electric is a real bonus
2015? Right on time. Isn’t that the same year we predicted when we run out of fuel?
2015 huh? Hopefully the price would not cost a bomb to own. And why not use more conventional design. This car is wierd, cute…it’s an acquired taste. As for me it’s oooooookey la. Look for any other design in the future.
One of those ugly designs that should have never been born. And no, design is not subjective, something is either ugly or beautiful; full stop.
Electric cars can come to market even today, heck in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were more electric cars than gasoline ones. But similar problems still plague them today. Of course opinions are abound that the oil companies killed off the early electric cars which is true to a certain extent but electric cars simply cannot meet overall needs of consumers. The development curve for pure electric cars, which simply means the amount of development which needs to be done to meet current and new (future) trends is steep because of several factors such cost, time and technical commital.
Does anyone here read the yesterday newspaper?
Proton is going to release electrical sport car (Lotus based) within a year…they stated u can save ur money for petrol but 18sen per km for electric and it can run for 36 hours or 320KM. It required 6 hours to fully charge the car. Quite interesting. The PM already test drive it.
the local made electrical car news is here (translated from chinese):
http://translate.google.com.my/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guangming.com.my%2Fnode%2F30647%3Ftid%3D3&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
How long does the battery last, if like laptop after 5 years battery faulty then it is expansive to buy this car…
i want qashqai, not these ugly car
@mystvearn said,
According to the newspaper it said it can last longer for 10 years.
aih… no need charge road tax la…. UK doesnt charge road tax for electric cars… ppl dy pay enuf tax for nothing…
So Tan chong will bring some demo units for test drive?? sure like to try them out.
Tips for ETCM:
Must bring the cars to Premium Hybrid Cars S/B, rebadge, add extra RM50K as ‘patriotic’ sales tax and expect us to hail it, buy it. Go green! Save the planet! Support the cronies and the crooks! Buy it now!