What's the news?
You'd be amazed how often 'Saturday Clubs' of car engineers working in their spare time has revolutionised the car industry. So many great cars, from BMWs to Jaguars to Porsches, have been created just because a group of like-minded factory workers fancied having a tinker.
Now it's Nissan's turn and this time the engineering is all electric. A group of spare-time Nissan engineers have made a 48kWh version of the Leaf electric car, which claims to have a 75 per cent improvement in its one-charge range. The car was built by a team working in Nissan's Technical Centre in Barcelona (NTCE-S), and has been designed to compete in a Spanish motorsport event, ECOseries - a new initiative which 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 utilise our knowledge of zero-emissions technology to look at how battery range could potentially be extended in this particular application."
Gareth Dunsmore, Director of Electric Vehicles at Nissan Europe, said: "As a pioneer of the electric vehicle market, Nissan has consistently innovated and advanced its technology to remain at the forefront of the zero emission sector. Whilst there are no plans to put this prototype into production, it serves as a useful exercise in thinking outside the box, something our engineers and designers do on a daily basis. The Nissan LEAF 48 kWh showcases the passion our employees have for their work."
Presumably, a 48kWh Leaf is an uneconomic prospect as a production model at the moment, but that 75 per cent improvement would suggest that this Leaf can go for as much as 400km on a single charge, a figure which could revolutionise the model in terms of its sales appeal and day-to-day usage. Expect to hear more of this Saturday club special.