Nissan unveiled its restructuring strategy, which will go through greater collaboration with its allies Renault and Mitsubishi to maximize synergies and cost savings. As well as a notable reduction in its production capacity to focus on profitability. This will result, among other things, in the closure of the company’s historic factory in Barcelona.
On the other hand, Nissan will bet strongly on the electric car, launching a total of eight models of this type by 2023. The first of these will be the Ariya, an SUV of around 4.60 meters long that will be in charge of releasing the modular platform CMF-EV of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. A skate-board type architecture developed from scratch for electric cars.
Located in segment D, this SUV will be situated between the Qashqai and X-Trail, offering an optimized interior space thanks to the CMF-EV platform. This will increase the wheelbase, reduce cantilevers, have a short hood, and of a front windshield, etc.
One of the significant innovations of the vehicle will be the intelligent “e-4FORCE” all-wheel-drive system, developed from experience gained with the Patrol SUV and GT-R supercar. The Ariya’s powertrain will consist of two electric motors (one per axle) that will deliver about 300 hp (227 kW) and 680 Nm of torque in total.
Nissan claims that the autonomy of the Ariya will be enough for an average driver to charge only once a week. Some sources assure that it will be around 310 miles of autonomy, although nothing is confirmed. It is also to be expected that it will have some liquid-cooled batteries, unlike the current LEAF.
The Ariya will be presented next July, and yesterday Nissan showed a new preview of the model and other future releases. The vehicle, which will equip the ProPILOT 2.0 autonomous driving system (which will add automated lane changes), will have an aesthetic very similar to that of the concept car presented a few months ago. Initially, it will be exported worldwide from Japan.
