Nissan's Electric Racer: Where Is The Race?

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: June 27th, 2011

nissan s electric racer where is the race

“And it goes like [human excrement],” said a freshly minted Nissan spokesperson who requested anonymity on account of him having been on the job for only two weeks. The “it” was Nissan’s latest racecar. It needed a special announcement, because it entered the hall with utmost stealth. None of the usual straight pipe roar. The Nissan Nismo racer is silent power.

The unheard-of racecar’s full name is “Nissan Leaf Nismo RC”. It is based on a Leaf. Currently, only four of the car exist.

“Even you can drive it,” said the Japanese project director who shall remain nameless, to a female executive of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. “Because it has no transmission, hahaha!”

Then she hit him.

It is a racer in search of a race. As much as I tried to needle the project director (who was rubbing his arm) about an EV race series, he kept grinning and said he had never heard of a race. Come on, Tesla against the Leaf Nismo, wouldn’t that be a hoot?

#BertelSchmitt #Japan #Leaf #Nismo #Nissan #Racer

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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SVX pearlie on Jun 27, 2011

Assuming they do this "race", what sort of race would it be? 24 hours of Le Mans, with 2 hours running and 22 hours charging?

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- Th009 on Jun 27, 2011
  
  Swap the battery packs, no? That will take longer than conventional refueling, but maybe it could be fast enough. And Le Mans 24H is indeed opening its to alternative technologies ...
  
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- Crabspirits on Jun 27, 2011
  
  @th009 Longer? It might even be faster if you designed it to drop out the bottom of the car with quick connects. An EV class running alongside everything else would be intriguing for sure. You never know, they may start overtaking most ICE-equipped vehicles if they can stay out there long enough.
  
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- Th009 on Jun 27, 2011
  
  @Crabspirits, dropping out from the bottom would be problematic as that would require lifting the car quite high in order to do the swap, making tire and driver changes more difficult. Remove/insert from the side (or rear?) is probably more practical.
  
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Monomille on Jun 27, 2011

That moves right along and without all of the exhaust noise you can sense other inputs like tire scrub, etc. The key to racing is my driving versus your driving in "competitive" cars. Competitive driving is just as much fun whether its karts or nitro dragsters. A formula series for these cars could be just as exciting to do and watch as any other. A shorter format like sprint car racing has always been more exciting for me to watch than 400 to 600 mile races.

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