A LEAF made "after hours": the prototype developed by its engineers in their free time

Victor Alós Yus @sepelaci 29 July 2016 2 min.

Passion for something is what makes us enjoy our free time, even though that passion may have a lot to do with our day-to-day work. Engineers at Nissan at the Innovation Centre of Nissan have been working on developing a version of the Nissan LEAF, the 100% electric car from the Japanese company that leads the market for this type of zero-emission urban vehicle.

These engineers are part of the so-called Technological Innovation team, which carries out a series of activities that drive the technological challenge of electric cars. Through these actions and activities comes Cocoon, a variant of the LEAF that expands on the specifications of the basic model on the market.

In principle, this experimental model uses a battery with twice the capacity of the one in the electric car from Nissan, which increases its range by at least 75% compared to that car. What matters about this car is not this increase in battery size, but that reaching it required creating a series of solutions that allow this component to be installed and to get the maximum performance out of it.

This model will not go into production, but everything the engineers have learned in shaping it will be important for the future developments of electric cars from the Japanese brand. The company authorises volunteers to carry out this kind of extracurricular work so that the engineers’ experience is put to the test and progress is made in developing this type of vehicle.

The model was built to take part in the Spanish ECOseries test, a new initiative that rewards efficiency and energy saving over speed and recognises the most efficient models. We hope that everything learned in developing this variant can be applied to the successive new models of Nissan.

Galería de fotos -

NISSAN LEAF 48 kWh