Nissan

Nissan Motor yesterday revealed a new Fuel Cell Stack for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) that packs 85 kW-h into a 34-liter package. Through improvements to the Membrane Electrode Assembly and the separator flow path, Nissan has improved the power density of the Fuel Cell Stack to 2.5 times greater than its 2005 model, and in so doing has created a world’s best 2.5 kW.h per liter power density. Similarly, by reducing the need for platinum by 75 percent, manufacturing costs have been reduced by 85 percent.  Read More

If there are two obstacles that are still keeping the general public from embracing electric cars, those would have to be the vehicles’ limited driving range and long charging times. Well, Nissan has achieved a major milestone regarding one of those two problems – last week, Japan’s Nikkei news agency reported that the automaker has developed an experimental system that can fully charge an EV battery in just ten minutes.  Read More

Sebastian Vettel won his second World F1 drivers championship today, and although only taking third place in the Japanese Grand Prix, he is still on track for the most dominant season in F1 history. His third place at Suzuka gave him 324 of the 375 points on offer – a stunning 86.4% of available points and still ahead of Michael Schumacher's best during his reign with Ferrari. Like most other records in F1, Vettel is once again the youngest to achieve the feat. For Red Bull Racing, it's the team's second drivers title and it is closing in on the constructors title with a lead of 130 points and just four races to go. Perhaps more ominously, the team it has assembled, and the relationship with both Infiniti and engine-suppliers Renault looks more than capable of sustaining the success.  Read More

UPDATED: NEW VIDEO Nissan is building two Juke-R concept cars. The tiny rocketships will be comprised of the all-wheel-drive drive-train and 480 bhp 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 engine from the Nissan GT-R supercar wedged into Nissan's diminutive crossover city car. The cars are being built by RML for Nissan Technical Centre for Europe (NTC-E) with a view to testing the “public’s reaction to a seriously sporty Juke.” The performance of the tiny super-city car is not yet known, but given the horsepower and dimensions of the vehicle, it will no doubt be one of the fastest accelerating roadcars in existence. There's also just a hint that should reaction be positive, it just might eventuate as a production model.  Read More

Nissan has unveiled a new power supply system that allows electricity stored in the lithium-ion batteries of the all-electric Nissan LEAF to be supplied to a house. With the LEAF’s batteries able to store up to 24 kWh of electricity, Nissan says the system could supply the average Japanese household with electricity for about two days. This would be enough to provide a stable electricity supply in the event of power outages or to allow consumers to store cheaper off-peak power for use in high demand periods.  Read More

We've written quite a bit about the first virtual-to-real racer, Lucas Ordonez, and his continuing exploits as a successful professional racing driver. The winner of the first Playstation Nissan GT Academy in 2008, Lucas is now racking up first class results in the incredibly competitive ILMC series, finishing second in class in the Le Mans 24 hour last month. Now the legitimacy of the entire experiment has gained further credibility with the immediate success of the second Academy (2010) winner Jordan Tresson. Competing in the Blancpain Endurance Series, Jordan finished fourth at Monza in his first outing in the series and last Sunday, the RJN Motorsport GT4-class Nismo Nissan 370Z he shared with Alex Buncombe and Chris Ward won its class at the 24 hour race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium's Ardennes region. The third (2011) GT academy winners are also shaping up as international class too.  Read More

Nissan has announced it will expand the U.S. availability of its all-electric LEAF to the Southeastern U.S. and Illinois markets. The 2012 model year (MY12) LEAF will also see a number of features previously available as optional extras now become standard, including a DC fast charge port and cold weather features such as a battery warmer, heated steering wheel and front and rear heated seats.  Read More

Nissan has announced it will begin global proving tests of an electric vehicle based on its NV200 compact commercial van this month. Since going on sale is Europe and Japan in 2009, the combustion engine-powered NV200 compact commercial van has picked up numerous awards. It was also also recently chosen as the next generation New York taxi, so the announcement of an electric version offers up the possibility that at least some of New York’s iconic yellow cabs may soon be getting a green tinge.  Read More

Sixty-one year old motorsport legend Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima, almost certainly the oldest world class athlete competing in any sport today, won his sixth consecutive Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday, at the same time as breaking the long standing 10 minute barrier for the course which rises 1.5 kilometers from start to oxygen-starved finish. Nissan's electric LEAF established a new electric car record for the course and Ducati's "four bikes in 1" Multistrada defended its 2010 win with a new record too.  Read More