Nissan leads charge for more points
Nissan wants to see more charging points all over Europe.
IT may or may not have been partly inspired by a certain Top Gear episode, but Nissan have realised the need for more charging points.
Jeremy Clarkson drove Nissan’s all-electric Leaf through Lincolnshire to the coast at Cleethorpes, but were almost stranded in Lincoln when they discovered there were no charging points in the entire county.
Nissan has since made sure that there is a point in the city, but to tempt more drivers to buy an all-electric car it must be made more practical.
With that in mind, the Japanese carmaker has formed a team to develop cheaper, smaller, fast chargers for electric vehicle batteries and boost the installation of Quick Charge (QC) points across Europe.
The agreement with technology firms Circutor, Efacec, DBT, Siemens and Endesa will halve the current price, falling to around £8,700 apiece, enabling service stations, car park operators and even shopping centres to run them on a commercial basis.
Such a move would mean Nissan LEAF drivers — and other quick charge enabled vehicles — could use their car for longer journeys and recharge the car’s battery to 80% capacity in less that half an hour.
This is expected to boost the number of thousands of QCs across Europe by the end of 2012, and tens of thousands by 2015.
Quick charging means that drivers could top up their battery while shopping or taking a lunch break.
With a range of just over 100 miles, quick charging would mean drivers could make longer journeys.
“We are confident that the Nissan LEAF’s range will be enough to satisfy most drivers’ daily needs. However, with a significant number of QCs available across Europe, EV owners who need to drive longer distances will be able to do so with confidence, knowing they will be able to recharge no matter where they go, which we believe is essential for the mass adoption of electric vehicles,” said Toshiyuki Shiga, of Nissan.