A team of Nissan engineers working in their spare time have produced a prototype model of the company’s LEAF electric car featuring a battery with double the capacity of the 24kWh production model.
The 48kWh capacity prototype promises a 75 per cent increase in driving range in everyday conditions. The 24kWh model boasts a stated range of 84 miles between charges, suggesting the prototype could deliver a range of nearly 150 miles. The larger battery also promises an increase on the 107 mile range delivered by Nissan’s 30kWh LEAF.
The prototype was developed by a team at Nissan’s Technical Centre in Barcelona (NTCE-S) in order to compete in Spain’s ECOseries motorsport event, which aims to reward the cars with the best fuel efficiency. Codenamed ‘Cocoon’, Nissan said there were no plans to put the prototype into production, but insisted it provided useful evidence of how electric vehicle range could be increased.
“It has been a great privilege to work on this project and to see our finished prototype race in the ECOseries,” said Dario Fernandez, senior engineer at NTCE-S, in a statement.
“Battery range improvement is important to the ongoing 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.”
