Nissan drives ahead on electric

Mike Ditz / Nissan NV200

Nissan’s e-NV200 Concept.

Nissan is showing its e-NV200 Concept at this year’s Detroit auto show — the Japanese automaker’s latest effort to electrify the automobile.

The automaker has installed the drivetrain from its recently-released Nissan Leaf electric car in a Nissan NV200 multi-usage van. The resulting vehicle “previews a near-future production version of a full electric vehicle designed to provide businesses or families with flexible, roomy interior space, while achieving a dramatic CO2 footprint reduction,” according to Nissan.

The Nissan e-NV200 Concept may look familiar to some. The Nissan NV200 van is due to start service in New York as the city’s exclusive taxi beginning in late 2013. Nissan has been testing an electric variant for some time now, with examples under trial with the Japan Post Service and FedEx in London, according to the Green Car Reports blog.

Mike Ditz / Nissan

The interior of Nissan’s e-NV200 Concept.

The new concept, along with the all-electric Leaf, form Nissan’s strategy to capture market share in the growing electric vehicle market.

In Detroit this week Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn said the automaker plans to double sales of its Leaf electric car to at least 20,000 this year. It will also expand availability of the car to all 50 states by the end of the year and will start building the cars in its new manufacturing facility in Tennessee.

The news comes amid some concern about the safety of electric cars.

Last week, General Motors said it would offer owners of its Volt electric car an enhancement to the vehicle’s structure and battery coolant system to protect the 400-pound lithium-ion battery from the possibility of an electrical fire occurring days or weeks after a severe crash.

The enhancements come in response to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Preliminary Evaluation to examine post-severe crash battery performance.

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