Nissan Tiida

We talked earlier about Nissan doing R & D on electric vehicles.  It seems they are further along than any of us predicted.  They have been keeping a tight lip about their EV program – until today.  Nissan showed the world a prototype EV built into their Tiida compact already on sale.  The exterior will be revealed on August 2, at the grand opening of their new headquarters.

Nissan has already commited to selling an EV by next year, meaning that the design and testing of the new car must be well down the line.

“Nissan will be a leader in zero-emission vehicles,” Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said ahead of a test-drive event at the automaker’s facility in this Tokyo suburb. “EV is the answer.”

Nissan is targeting a production of 100,000 vehicles (per year) at their Oppama plant, that includes imports and exports.  After 2012, however, they plan to mass produce the EVs in numbers far surpassing the 100k mark.  To help with that Nissan is going to modify their Smyrna, Tennessee to produce EVs starting in 2012.  They have received a $1.6 billion loan from the department of energy to help pay for this modification.

The car will be full EV, meaning no gas/diesel motor to extend the range.  The vehicle shown today stores the batteries beneath the floor of the vehicle so that there is more room for passengers and luggage.  It has the usual recharging system built into the brakes, extending the range of the small EV to just over 100 miles.