"Nissan Shows New Hybrid, EV Systems and More at Advanced Tech Fest" Green Car Advisor

Nissan Shows New Hybrid, EV Systems and More at Advanced Tech Fest

Nissan packaged its new electric vehicle ssytem in a Cube compact van for testing, but is planning a more conventional sedan for production.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

OPPAMA, Japan -- Much of the rest of the auto industry seems to be slowing down, but Nissan Motor Co., hoping to ride the green wave to growth in the U.S. and globally, is pumping billions into environmental initiatives that executives say could propel the company to the top tier of automakers in a just a few years.

In pursuit of that goal, Carlos Ghosn, Nissan's charismatic chief, already has committed the company to zero-emissions leadership by 2012.

Nissan this year has announced plans for a rear-wheel-drive hybrid and a battery-powered electric car by 2010; has formed a partnership with electronics giant NEC to develop a new generation of powerful lithium-ion batteries for hybrids and EVs; is helping develop a rapid charging system for electric cars that could recharge battery packs in as little as 10 minutes; and continues development work to commercialize hydrogen fuel cells for automotive use.

It showed off many of those technologies for the first time in a seminar this week at its research and development facilities in this port city southwest of Toyko.

The company isn't alone. As fuel prices have soared globally and international concerns about energy independence grows, most automakers have begun or stepped up efforts to bring alternative fuel and alternative power plant cars and trucks to market.

But Nissan is a standout for its push for battery EVs and its determination to make the technology -- promising in the late 1990s but long-since abandoned by most -- viable once again.

On Wednesday (Tuesday night in the U.S.) Nissan let a group of journalists try out prototypes of its 2010 EV and hybrid powertrains and showed us the technology behind the advanced lithium-ion batteries that will make them go.

Minoru Shinohara (right), Nissan's senior vice president of technology development, told Green Car Advisor that the company sees a business advantage in EVs and intends to be the industry leader in affordable, mass market zero emission cars that use batteries to power electric motors.

Nissan also wants to be a leader in providing the batteries and the battery-charging infrastructure that will make EVs work, he said.

While others champion the gas-electric hybrid and the plug-in hybrid with limited all-electric range, Nissan's faith in the all-electric vehicle is based on its belief that people all over the world are moving out of suburbia and back into cities as they try to minimize commutes and economize on fuel.

As urban areas grow in population density and driving distances decline, Shinohara said, the electric vehicle becomes a viable alternative to gasoline and diesel cars and truck. And as the world runs out of crude oil, electric vehicles become the leading alternative.

We like EVs, always have -- their power, the technical elegance of their drive systems, their quiet and emissions-free operation, their power, the relatively cheap operating costs, their low maintenance, and, did we mention, their power.

Gen 4 EV

The system Nissan showed off this week did nothing to change our minds.

Nissan's 4th-generation EV was packaged for our test drive in a Japanese-market Nissan Cube but destined for a four-door sedan that won't look like anything in the present Nissan lineup.

Even hauling the tall, boxy Cube around, it provided plenty of zip.

Nissan wouldn't provide 0-60 acceleration times, but on a short test loop around the carmaker's Oppama track, it felt like the high 7-seconds. It likely will be quicker in final production form.

Range is still a long way from what we expect from a gasoline fueled vehicle, but as configured it comes it at a respectable-for-an-EV 100 miles between charges.

Adding a few more cells to each of the individual packs would improve the total somewhat, although cost and weight might rule that out in an initial production model.

The system is packaged for front-wheel drive, using a new 80-kilowatt motor and power inverter to propel them.

Nano Tech is Key

A 190-pound bundle of three lithium-ion battery packs stores and supplies the juice.

The batteries (Nissan has been developing lithium-ion batteries since the early 1990s and introduced the world's first in an electric vehicle in 1996) use a new nano-technology developed by Nissan and partner NEC in their Automotive Energy Supply Corp. joint venture.

The batteries (right) -- smaller and lighter than previous lithium-ion cells the carmaker has used -- are made of flat, laminated electrodes rather than cylindrical cells with the electrodes rolled up inside like a jelly roll.

The pancake shape of each cell makes it easy to stack them and facilitates cooling, cutting down on the cost of managing the heat buildup that can cause problems with lithium-ion batteries.

The positive electrode, or cathode, is manganese; the negative, or anode, is carbon graphite.

Nissan's "nano-dispersal" technology keeps the super-small (nano-sized) electrode materials from clumping up, reducing internal resistance which in turn boosts power output.

Nissan claims the new batteries provide 50 percent more power -- 90 kilowatts -- than the lithium-ion batteries used in the Nissan Altra EV produced and used for research purposes in the U.S. and Japan from 1998 to 2003.

Energy density, which helps account for the travel range a battery pack can provide between charges, is double that of the previous generation pack used in the Hypermini EV prototype from 1999-2001.

The rectangular battery packs are installed under the Cube's floor and don't interfere with cargo or passenger space -- a feature Nissan presumably will design in to the production EV it plans to launch in the U.S in 2010.

The batteries can be recharged in 10 minutes using existing fast-charging technology, the company said.

A New Hybrid

Nissan uses a similar battery, but with different chemistry, for the gas-electric hybrid it is developing for its rear-wheel-drive platform and has slated for introduction late next year or early 2010 in its upscale Infiniti lineup.

Set up for a hybrid, the battery pack can double the power of previous packs -- providing more powerful acceleration and recapturing energy more efficiently during regenerative braking.

While Nissan previously leased Toyota's parallel hybrid technology for its Altima hybrid, the rear-wheel-drive hybrid system was designed and developed in-house, Shinohara said.

It is a parallel system, too -- using an electric motor to augment a gas engine and designed so that either power plant also can operate alone.

Nissan's wrinkle is that it mates the electric motor to a 3.5-liter V6 -- that, at least, is what was in the prototype G35 sedan (above) that we drove -- via a pair of clutches. One is mounted between the gas engine and the electric motor, the other after the electric motor at the tail end of a seven-speed automatic transmission.

The arrangement lets the clutches replace the automatic's power-wasting torque converter, improving engine responsiveness and helping boost fuel efficiency. Nissan wouldn't provide any solid numbers, but said the powerful V6 would deliver "compact car" gas mileage.

When the car is accelerating, both the gas and electric motors are operating and both clutches are engaged. In low-speed "urban" driving (or in traffic jams), the electric motor does all the work and the front clutch disengages because the gas engine is shut down and offers no power to be processed.

At higher city speeds, the electric motor shuts down and the gas engine provides all the power. Both clutches are activated, however, with the rear clutch enabling power from the spinning electric motor to be channeled back into the battery pack to help recharge it.

In the hybrid's fourth mode, regeneration, the gas engine and front clutch shut down, and power generated by braking the rear wheels travels through the rear clutch and electric motor to the battery pack.

Fuel Cell

Beyond battery electrics, or perhaps along side them one day, is the fuel-cell electric car, which uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce the electrons it needs to operate.

Nissan has been developing fuel cells for more than a decade and says the latest version (right) is 40 percent more powerful as the previous generation cell but also is 35 percent cheaper and 25 percent smaller.

The price-cutting came largely from a new process that enabled the company to cut the use of expensive platinum catalyst material by half.

Improved power density comes from a new cell design that replaces thick carbon separators with thin metal ones. The separators break down the hydrogen, oxygen and water that combine to launch the chemical reaction that pulls electrons from the hydrogen.

Nissan says it intends to have a test fleet of vehicles using the new fuel cells on the road in the U.S. and Japan by 2010.

Gas Engines Too

Nissan isn't abandoning the gasoline engine, although it has set a goal of reducing CO2 from internal combustion engines 30 percent from present levels by 2015.

It intends to do that with a technology several other automakers, notably Daimler and General Motors Corp., also are working on -- the homogenous charge compression ignition, or HCCI, engine.

HCCI uses the same type of high-pressure direct injection that diesels use to vaporize the gasoline in a powerful explosion deep within each engine cylinder.

Using the heat from compression rather than a spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture results in cooler combustion, which creates less smog-causing oxygen nitrates (NOx).

It also uses the fuel far more efficiently than does a typical spark-fired, top-of -cylinder gas engine, resulting in a big improvement in fuel economy.

HCCI developers say the engine provides the best of both gas and diesel engines, with diesel's fuel economy and high torque and gasoline's power.

It's a long list and most of the technologies still need a lot of work -- the switchover between the gas and electric powertrains in the rear-wheel drive hybrid, for instance, was rough as a potholed street in downtown Los Angeles.

But Nissan is committed to working the bugs out and launching its green vehicles and powertrains as quickly as possible, Shinohara said.