Haha... "pocket PDA". Sombody's out of sync, that's a cinch. Or do I mean "synch"?
Cool car, though. A Tesla for ordinary people.
Nissan’s new Leaf plug-in electric vehicle may be the way to capture the minds of American consumers wary about EVs, but its new ESFLOW electric sports car concept dares to capture our hearts.
The Japanese automaker announced the vehicle on Thursday, promising an “environmentally sympathetic” vehicle without risking “the joy of driving.”
Put the pedal to the metal, if you ask me.
As such, the ESFLOW concept takes the powertrain components from the Leaf — an electric motor that drives each powered wheel hooked up to laminated lithium-ion batteries — and marries them to an aluminum chassis built for performance, in the form of a 0 to 60 m.p.h. time of less than five seconds.
The range, you ask? About 150 miles per charge.
As befits a concept car, the rear-wheel drive two-seater is not subtle in its styling, and has a long bonnet that meets an angled, jet fighter-like “wraparound windscreen” for unobstructed views. The weight distribution of the car — and most of its heavy powertrain components, such as the batteries — is centered, and the vehicle sits on six-spoke wheels with carbon inserts, wrapped with ultra-low profile rubber.
As you might suspect, blue LED lights adorn the front and back of the vehicle. One neat feature: flip-out charging points are built into the air ducts beneath the headlamps.
Here’s how Nissan describes its target demographic:
Daniel, an ESFLOW owner, works in tech, but lives for the weekend. On Friday night after work, he gets behind the wheels of his ESFLOW which instantly links with his pocket PDA and determines the fastest route to his girlfriend’s home. Finding street side parking is a synch as the ESFLOW’s compact dimensions allow it to slip in to the narrowest of spaces. On Saturday he drives to a popular club to exhibit his DJ skills and his friends are impressed by his cool EV sports car.
Turntables and a Palm Pilot? Not so sure about that, but you get the drift.
Nissan will formally unveil the ESFLOW concept car at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, which takes place from March 3 to 13.
The requisite video, of course:
