Nissan to unveil BladeGlider Concept at Tokyo Motor Show 2013
Nissan has announced that it will showcase an 'exploratory' electric vehicle (EV) at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. The brand has revealed the BladeGlider Concept and has also said that it envisions the concept as an upcoming production car. It reiterates Nissan's Zero Emissions Mobility programme. The BladeGlider shares engineering values with both the Leaf - the best-selling EV in history ?and the ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car), which will make its debut at next year's Le Mans 24 Hour race.
BladeGlider Concept
When it comes to the shape, the EV has a narrow front track which is approximately a metre with a very wide rear track. This reeks of aerodynamic performance. "Achieving low drag while generating road-hugging downforce" was Nissan's motive. It has a driver's seat in the middle of the snouty front with two passenger seats placed right behind.
The vehicle makes heavy use of carbon fibre and lets the car's centre of mass on the rear wheels to allow lighter turns. The setup looks to generate an aircraft like feeling with a funky looking steering to complement it. It also gets state-of-the-art instrumentation technology which can display relief maps and atmospheric conditions. The car's weight distribution is 30 to 70 front to rear, owing to the low, rear positioning of the lithium ion batteries and lightweight in-wheel electric motors. The rear passengers are also seated at the longitudinal centre of gravity to maintain the car's balance at all times. The kind of vision that the EV provides, Nissan says, looks to create a feeling of oneness between machine and driver.
It also gets state-of-the-art instrumentation technology which can display relief maps and atmospheric conditions
The artistically designed gull-wing doors and the typical concept-like exterior designs will obviously be tweaked if and when this EV goes into production. BladeGlider's design chief Shiro Nakamura did call it 'an extreme interpretation' of a road model. "BladeGlider was conceived around delivering a glider-like exhilaration that echoes its lightweight, downsized hyper-efficient aerodynamic form. This design is more than revolutionary; it's transformational, applying our most advanced electric drive-train technology and racetrack-inspired styling in the service of a new dimension of shared driving pleasure," said Nakamura.
BladeGlider's design chief Shiro Nakamura did call it 'an extreme interpretation' of a road model
Nissan is one of the biggest player when it comes to electric vehicles. Recently we had informed you about Nissan selling the 1,00,000th Leaf. The company evidently seems to be focusing on giving customers not just a zero-emission vehicle but also a car that can boast of some exhilarating performance.
