Nissan has released a small set of information on the new Leaf, the electric car that started life as a saloon in 2010 and has now become an SUV. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the model has not lost its vocation of democratising electric technology.
The exterior design has a solid appearance with sleek lines and an extremely low drag coefficient of just 0.26 (values recorded for the US and Japanese markets). The European variants, equipped with an exclusive design for wheels and rear-view mirrors, achieve the even lower value of 0.25. Numbers achieved thanks to a number of specific features such as the handles flush with the bodywork, active front grille, optimised wheel design, flat underbody and the aerodynamically favourable shape of the tailgate.
“Every design choice was made to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. Even the panoramic glass roof, with its electronic dimming function, allowed us to keep the car low at critical points, while providing ample headroom inside the cabin,” said Nobutaka Tase, Programme Design Director. The panoramic roof has no sunshade, its transparency varies with the movement of the ions within its layered structure, and the driver can easily adjust the amount of light entering the car at the touch of a button.
