{"id":48276,"date":"2012-03-21T15:54:36","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T19:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=48276"},"modified":"2012-03-21T20:59:39","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T00:59:39","slug":"infiniti-to-reveal-ev-concept-in-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/03\/infiniti-to-reveal-ev-concept-in-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Infiniti to Reveal EV Concept in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Infiniti Emerg-E concept vehicle first seen at the Geneva Motor Show this month.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nissan Leaf is about to get a sportier sibling.\u00a0 The Japanese maker\u2019s luxury brand Infiniti will pull the wraps off its own battery-electric vehicle during the upcoming New York Auto Show.<\/p>\n

While company officials are holding most of the details for that April introduction, they revealed to TheDetroitBureau.com that the Infiniti battery car will share the same underpinnings as the Leaf it will be \u201cmore aggressive\u201d in terms of both looks and performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was designed to be a luxury vehicle first and an electric vehicle second,\u201d said Infiniti marketing manager Sam Chung.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe for Free!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new model \u2013 which Infiniti has yet to put a name to \u2013 will be Nissan Motor Co.\u2019s second battery-electric vehicle, or BEV, underscoring the Japanese maker\u2019s expansive electric propulsion program.\u00a0 Along with its French alliance partner Renault, Nissan plans to have capacity in place to produce over 400,000 electric vehicles annually by mid-decade.\u00a0 That includes a new facility operating alongside the current Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

But while they share the same foundation, with the Infiniti model, \u201cZero emissions is something we\u2019re pursuing in a more aggressive way\u201d at Infiniti, said Chung.<\/p>\n

The body of the new model will be more sporty, with at least a hint of the luxury brand\u2019s popular G-Series styling.\u00a0 It may also adapt such details as the crescent-shaped kink in the rear pillar that can be found on the new Infiniti JX crossover. It may also reveal the influence of the Infiniti Emerg-E battery car prototype introduced at the Geneva Motor Show this month.\u00a0 Officially, the model coming to New York is being described as a “concept,” but in keeping with Nissan and Infiniti tradition, company officials said, it will be very close to the ultimate production model.<\/p>\n

The basic powertrain also will be shared with the Leaf, and in this case, the Infiniti BEV will adopt the mid-cycle refinements Nissan plans to introduce on the 2013 Leaf.\u00a0 That includes a more efficient electric cabin heater \u2013 which will draw significantly less power, improving cold weather range. The power electronics and other systems will also see improvements over the original Leaf, launched in late 2010.<\/p>\n

(For more on the updates planned for the 2013 Nissan Leaf, <\/em>Click Here<\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The battery pack, meanwhile, will be larger than the current 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack in the Nissan Leaf, confirmed Infiniti product planning manager Sean McNamara.\u00a0 He declined to say how much bigger, but the additional battery capacity will be needed to support the improved performance of Infiniti\u2019s first electric vehicle without sacrificing range.<\/p>\n

The current Leaf model is rated at 73 miles per charge on the EPA\u2019s Combined driving cycle, though Nissan says it can get about 100 miles on the highway under ideal conditions.<\/p>\n

The Leaf sacrifices performance to get there, with a 0 to 60 time in the 11 second range.\u00a0 While officials are waiting until the NY Auto Show to reveal more details, company insiders hinted something at or below 9 seconds might be possible.<\/p>\n

The new Infiniti battery car will also adopt a 6 kWh charger which will allow a fully depleted battery to reach 100% range in half the time of the system used on the current Leaf.\u00a0 The Nissan model will upgrade from the present 3 kWh charger in December.<\/p>\n

Some critics have questioned Nissan\u2019s battery car strategy, noting the relatively modest demand for the Leaf, as well as the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, last year. Together they generated barely 20,000 sales.\u00a0 And while Leaf volume was nudging up towards 1,000 a month in the latter part of 2011 that slipped to just 676 in January 2012 and 478 last month.<\/p>\n

Nissan spokesman Dave Reuter argued that the slide was the result of Nissan expanding Leaf distribution to other international markets ahead of a ramp-up in production.\u00a0 He said the maker expects to see a sharp rise in the months ahead, and it is targeting volumes closer to 20,000 for the year.<\/p>\n

And Infiniti? \u201cWe\u2019re planning for volume,\u201d rather than just looking to create a halo car, said Chung. \u201cOtherwise we wouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

TheDetroitBureau.com will cover the unveiling of the Nissan battery car next month in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Infiniti will unveil its battery-electric vehicle at the NY Auto Show next month. The new model will be sportier looking and faster than its sibling, the Nissan Leaf, TheDetroitBureau.com has learned, while also adopting a larger battery pack. Here’s more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48276"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=48276"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=48276"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=48276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}