Nissan engineers have created in their spare time a prototype Leaf with a 48kWh battery that is twice the size of the original Leaf production model, providing a 75% increase in driving range in everyday conditions. It was created by a group of engineers at Nissan’s Technical Centre in Barcelona (NTCE-S), whose passion and commitment to their work has given rise to the Nissan innovation team.
The prototype, codenamed Cocoon in reference to the American sci-fi film of the same name, was built to compete in the Spanish ECOseries race, a new initiative that rewards ‘efficiency and fuel economy rather than outright speed.’
Dario Fernandez, senior engineer at NTCE-S, said, “It has been a great privilege to work on this project and to see our finished prototype race in the ECOseries. We all have a real passion for what we do and being able to work on prototype projects gives us the creative freedom to be as innovative and forward-thinking as we possibly can.
“Battery range improvement is important to the on-going adoption of electric vehicles, so this was a great opportunity to utilize our knowledge of zero-emissions technology to look at how battery range could potentially be extended in this particular application.”
Extra-curricular projects such as this feed into Nissan’s intelligent mobility vision and allow employees to draw on their expertise, skills and experience to experiment with technology, design and engineering.
July 26, 2016
