Nissan is pointing the way to a future electric sports car with its striking Esflow concept.
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What is the Nissan Esflow?
The Nissan Esflow is a sporty electric concept car
It’s a two-seater hard-top electric sports car, based on technology from the new Nissan Leaf. Nissan has tried to stick to true sports car principles, by making the Esflow rear-wheel drive (one electric motor for each rear wheel) and by locating the lithium-ion batteries in such a way as to give the car good balance and a low centre of gravity. All of which should be good news for handling.
There’s more good news, too: thanks to the instant torque that’s offered from electric motors, the Esflow can hit 62mph in less than five seconds, despite having a range of 240km (nearly 150 miles) on one charge.
Whether the Esflow can achieve such admirable stats in real-life driving is something we’ll look forward to finding out…
Why buy one?
Sorry, you can’t – the Esflow is purely a concept car at this stage. But given that Nissan (and sister company Renault) are now serious players in the electric car game, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if an electric sports car did make production, maybe with some of these styling cues.
Nissan’s certainly knows the Esflow’s anticipated target market. To quote the press pack:
‘Daniel, an Esflow owner, works in tech, but lives for the weekend. On Friday night after work, he gets behind the wheels of his Esflow which instantly links with his pocket PDA and determines the fastest route to his girlfriend’s home. Finding street-side parking is a synch as the Esflow’s compact dimensions allow it to slip into the narrowest of spaces. On Saturday he drives to a popular club to exhibit his DJ skills and his friends are impressed by his cool EV sports car.
‘On Sunday he drives through the mountains for leisure. Esflow’s superb weight distribution and unobstructed view ahead enables him to effortlessly nail every apex, every time. His descent from the mountains is more relaxed and he allows the Esflow to overrun on the long sweeping curves, turning the potential energy he and the car gained climbing up the gradients back in to electrical energy he can use once he hits the roads around Barcelona.
‘As his Esflow sips energy in its garage Daniel prepares himself for the week ahead, batteries fully recharged.’
If that sounds like you, you might be feeling just a little patronised right now…
What are the engine options?
There aren’t any. All Nissan has said at this stage is that the Esflow uses lithium-ion batteries, two electric motors for the rear wheels and a similar powertrain to that found in the Nissan Leaf. Given the Leaf has a claimed range of 100 miles, we’re intrigued to know how Nissan will wring more power, performance and range from the Esflow. But then again, the Tesla Roadster has already shown it’s possible to make an impressive all-electric sports car (for around £90,000).
The Esflow uses some of the same technology as the Leaf electric car
Take a look at our review of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car
How much will it cost?
If Nissan goes on to build a production version of the Esflow, or something like it, we’d expect the list price to top £30,000. But frankly, it’s anyone’s guess at this stage.
When is it out?
The Esflow is still a concept, but we think it’s possible we could see a small electric sports car from Nissan by around 2013.
View all of our coverage of the Geneva Motor Show.
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