Nov 05 2016

The company which already builds the all-electric Leaf model at its manufacturing facility in Sunderland – has taken its existing electric vehicle (EV) technology and added a 1.2 litree, three-cylinder petrol engine to charge the battery when necessary, eliminating the need for an external charger while offering the same high-output. The system is fitted in a Nissan Note a model that is also built in Sunderland

The good news is that this means that the ‘range anxiety’ – the fear of running out of charge because of the current limited distance EVs can travel before needing to be charged – that prevents many car buyers from going electric will become a thing of the past

However, as the petrol engine is acting as an onboard generator for charging the batteries, there will still be CO2 emissions. Nissan hasn’t yet reveled the level of those emissions, which will have to be determined by the same testing used for every other car on sale in the UK

The e-Power system has full electric-motor drive, so the wheels are completely driven by the electric motor. The power from the battery is delivered to the powertrain, which is made up of a petrol engine, power generator, inverter and motor