Archive for Nissan

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 liter 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.

Click here to read the rest of ETCM plans to bring in Nissan electric cars in 2015

Edaran Tan Chong Motors Sdn Bhd will be launching the Nissan Navara before the end of the year, and the new pick-up truck will be a fully imported CBU model, revealed its executive director Datuk Dr Ang Bon Beng in a report by Bernama.

There are also on-going talks with Nissan for more fuel efficient compacts to be brought in. This likely means moving downmarket and offering cars smaller than the Latio such as the Nissan Pino, Nissan Note, and Nissan Moco (rebadged Suzuki MR Wagon).

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Seven seater multi-purpose vehicles (MPV) is a popular segment of automobiles in Malaysia, more so the sub-RM100k ones. So much so, Malaysians seem to lap up practically all of the affordable MPV models being dished out to them.

This brings us to Nissan’s answer to Toyota’s low cost Avanza, and to a certain extent the Innova. However, unlike the Avanza, the Latio-based Grand Livina is more akin to the Honda Stream 1.8 and the Toyota Wish 2.0, possibly just a few inches shorter but returns some RM50k in spare change!

Read a test drive review of the Nissan Grand Livina after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Grand Livina 1.8 Automatic Review

The amazing Nissan GT-R piloted by The Stig managed to get around Top Gear’s track faster than the likes of the Porsche Carrera GT, McLaren SLR, Lamborghini LP640 and just 0.2 seconds slower than the Ariel Atom.

I’ll let the video do the talking… watch it after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Top Gear drives the Nissan GT-R

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd is organizing an interesting contest called the Nissan Lightfoot Quest 2008 for existing owners of all variants of the Nissan Latio, Nissan Grand Livina and Nissan Sylphy.

The Nissan Lightfoot Quest 2008 is essentially a fuel consumption contest. The event will be held on the 3rd of August 2008 which is a Sunday. ETCM will be educating the drivers on how to save fuel through driving techniques.

You begin the drive from Holiday Inn Glenmarie in Shah Alam and end at the Impiana Casuarina Hotel in Ipoh. The contest will be scrutineered by MAM. You are allowed a maximum of two per car - one driver and one passenger, both with driving licenses. The passenger will be navigating the pre-arranged route with a rally style tulip guide.

NOTE: The number of prizes in each category cannot exceed 50% of the total number of entries in that category, so if somehow there are only 4 participants in the 1.6 manual category there will only be the 1st and 2nd prize.

Register before 5PM on the 28th of July 2008 by emailing crd@tanchong.com.my or calling 1800888368. There will be a limit of 40 participants on a first come first serve basis.

Click to enlarge

Nissan will be displaying this quirky-looking concept car at the 2008 British International Motor Show called the Nissan Denki Cube Concept. It’s based on the Nissan Cube and uses a pure electric motor drivetrain powered by laminated lithium ion batteries.

Those who knows a little bit of Japanese or are fans of Best Denki outlets (ogling at the LCD TVs) here in Malaysia would be able to figure out now that Denki is Japanese for “electric”. More details on this concept to come during at the motorshow.

The long-awaited (some say too long actually) Nissan Sylphy has been launched in Malaysia with a single engine option and two variants, as revealed earlier on this website.

The prices are similiar to the pre-launch indication, about RM200 cheaper across the range with the Sylphy 2.0 Comfort costing RM112,800 in West Malaysia, with the Luxury version having a RM4k premium at RM116,800.

Read more details on the newly launched Nissan Sylphy after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Sylphy 2.0 CVTC Launched in Malaysia!

Nissan’s line-up for the G8 Hokkaido Toyaki summit next month will include a Nissan X-Trail equipped with a version of Renault’s M9R diesel engine.

This new engine will feature piezo-electric injectors, a 1,600 bar common rail system, a variable geometry turbocharger, a diesel particulate filter, a lean NOx-trap catalyst and a system to modulate the DPF and catalysts on the fly depending on driving conditions.

Nissan already offers turbodiesel engines in the second generation Nissan X-Trail in Europe which are also from the M9R family (which Nissan calls M1D), featuring two different power outputs of between 148hp and 173hp, and 320Nm to 360Nm of torque respectively, within the range of a 3.5 liter V6 petrol engine.

The Japanese market diesel-powered X-Trail due in September 2009 will offer similiar power outputs, but its emissions will be tuned to suit Japan’s ‘post new long-term regulations’ due to start taking effect from October 2009.

Edaran Tan Chong Motor has unveiled initial details on the Nissan Sylphy that it will be launching soon on their website. I will list them here for your convenience. Showrooms are now taking bookings for the car.

The Nissan Sylphy will only feature one engine variant, which is the MR20DE engine. The 2.0 liter engine is a long stroke engine with variable valve timing producing 133 PS at 5,200rpm and 191Nm of torque at 4,400rpm. Power will go to the front wheels via an XTRONIC CVT transmission featuring gear ratios from 2.349 to 0.394.

The car’s suspension design uses an independent MacPherson strut setup with stabilizer at the front, and a torsion beam at the rear, presumably to improve boot space, which totals up to 504 liters. The car has ventilated disc brakes at the front and drum brakes at the rear, with ABS, EBD and Brake Assist. The power steering system is of the electric type as opposed to a hydraulic system. Fuel tank size is 52 liters, and Nissan claims the car can travel 16km on 1 liter of fuel as tested under Japan’s 10-15 test mode.

The Nissan Sylphy’s 2700mm wheelbase is the equal to the Honda Civic’s which means impressive cabin space is highly likely. The Sylphy and the Civic have the longest wheelbase measurements among the C-segment sedans in Malaysia, with the Hyundai Elantra coming in second at 2641mm.

Safety features for the Nissan Sylphy include dual SRS airbags, driver double pre-tensioner seatbelt, front passenger single pre-tensioner seatbelt, an active head restraint, and ABS brakes. The car has a decent equipment list including an automatic headlamps which turn on when it is dark, headlamp aim control from within the cabin, fog lamps, speed-sensitive wipers, a single CD audio player with 4 door speakers and 2 front tweeters, a glass printed audio antenna, electrically adjustable and foldable wing mirrors, a foot-operated parking brake, and UV-cut windshield glass.

The interior is done up in sand beige with cherry wood trim, and the steering is wrapped with leather, with an anti-microbacterial coating. For the standard Comfort Package, the seats and door panels are wrapped with Masumi fabric, while the Luxury package upgrades these to combination leather. The Luxury package also adds a 6-CD audio player with Mp3 support, and full V-Kool tinting.

6 colour options are available: Tungsten Silver, Cecil Blue, Sapphire Black, Chardonnay Gold, Brilliant White and Twilight Grey. The following is an initial price list which could change (even the specifications above could change) when the car is finally launched:

West Malaysia
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Comfort Package - RM113,000
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Luxury Package - RM117,000

East Malaysia
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Comfort Package - RM116,000
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Luxury Package - RM120,000

Langkawi and Labuan
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Comfort Package - RM76,000
Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Luxury Package - RM80,000

More images after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Sylphy 2.0 Initial Details and Pricing

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd announced yesterday that it will be launching two models this year. One is the Nissan Sylphy, which only comes with one engine variant, a 2.0 liter model powered by the MR20DE. The other will be a pick-up truck, which is likely the Nissan Frontier Navara 4X4 that is sold in Thailand by Siam Nissan Automobile.

The Nissan Frontier Navara, or known as the Nissan Navara in other parts of the world, sports a rather impressive specifications list in Thailand including transmission choices that feature either a 6-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic. The gearing for the automatic features a strong 3.827 first gear ratio and a single overdrive ratio.

Even the 6-speed manual has a first gear ratio of 4.692 (compared to the Ranger’s 3.905), which guarantees oodles of fun for those who like pushing off from a stand-still and feeling a turbodiesel’s massive torque. The truck’s 4WD system is now electronically selectable via a dial on the dashboard.

The engine under the hood is the Euro3-compliant YD25DDTi commonrail turbocharged intercooled engine which uses a variable geometry turbocharger. It produces 174 horsepower at 4,000rpm and 403Nm of torque at 2,000rpm, easily the most powerful pick-up truck in its class. We can probably expect similiar specifications.

Size-wise, the Frontier Navara has grown larger compared to the Frontier SUT that is on sale currently. Wheelbase has increased from 2,950mm to 3,200rpm, while length, width and height of the Frontier Navara is 5,125 x 1,850 x 1,780 compared to the Frontier SUT’s 5,080 x 1,825 x 1,715. So the new truck is wider, taller, and longer. It can handle a payload of more than 1 ton (1,050kg), and has a towing capacity of 2,700kg thanks to the high 403Nm of torque.

Look after the jump for more photos of the Navara.

Click here to read the rest of ETCM to launch Nissan Frontier successor soon