This year’s Paris Motor Show has seen many major manufacturers making strident efforts towards smaller, more fuel efficient, and more environmentally sustainable vehicles. The Nissan Nuvu is just such a car, representing the type of vehicle that we will be driving within the next decade: one that is city-smart, compact and all-electric.
The Nissan Nuvu seats three within a compact three-meter long chassis. Its roof is lined with around a dozen solar panels, which feed the car’s battery via a pillar running through the interior. It is meant to be agile and roomy, and it features a nice futuristic instrument panel. The Nuvu‘s powertrain runs on two lithium-ion batteries, and its electric motors can push the car to a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour, which will take you for 80 miles on a charge.
While the Nuvu is currently a concept, Nissan plans to incorporate the technologies debuted this car in a soon-to-be revealed electric vehicle slated for production in 2010.
+ Nissan Nuvu
+ 2008 Paris Motor Show
This looks really cool. Very futuristic. (But then it is a concept car.) And 75mph and 80 miles range is nothing to be sneezed at. It would be great if cars like this could become a reality as they’d work wonders for cutting emissions and clearing some of the congestion off our streets.
My biggest problem with this kind of vehicle is, well, just that – the ‘big’ factor. These cars just aren’t big. And most of our population is! When so many people are overweight these days such a small car cuts down on its target market before it’s even left the designer’s table. Then there are tall people, like me, who’d probably be crippled from having to sit in one of these for anything over 20 minutes or so – it’s not fun sitting with your knees up to your chin! I know the designers say it will seat three, but eveyone knows that third person has to be about 1m tall to fit in the back of small cars and that those in the front should be of a small build.
Personally, I’d prefer it if designers made this kind of car just a little bigger, even just a few centimetres, and cut a mile or two off the speed and/or fuel consumption. A small sacrifice in efficiency, would be more than compensated by the increased market that these vehicles could reach.
All that said, the technology – 75 mph, 80m range, is great. It’s all a step forward towards cutting emissions and making our traveling far more eco-friendly. Vehicles like this are a great start and foreshadow vehicles of the future. Just think how the technology behind this car will spawn incredibly efficient vehicles 20 years down the line.
Steve N. Lee
I disagree with Mr. Lee. This product is already niche oriented, especially towards the young, socially active, and mobile. Maybe if this model sees success, Nissan would introduce a more “girth friendly” model.