Zoomi Life

Alright, I’ll admit that the title is a bit of a teaser since Nissan hasn’t actually produced a model of a car that does those things yet. So no, you won’t be able to buy any kind of an “infinity machine” from Nissan anytime soon. No, what Nissan is doing is researching recharging units that use neither the existing electrical grid nor gasoline or diesel burning motors to supply power to a battery storage bank or electric motor.

So it’s a Chevy Volt without a gasoline motor. “…it’s very futuristic,” says Minoru Shinohara, V.P. Of the Technology Development Department at Nissan, “but we need zero emission vehicles. With India, Russia and China, there is a large increase in vehicles expected.”

This means that Nissan hopes to be able to field a zero emissions car by the time huge demand from Russia, India, and China have risen high enough that sales expectations in those countries could offset the R&D costs. The Japanese have long been the marketing masters of “get in first, hit hard, hold your position” tactics—witness the Toyota Prius, for instance, which is now almost a verb for “green car.”

“Ya, I decided to Prius up my Ford, Earl. Git er donnnne!”

Nissan already plans to release electric “city cars” (sub-55mph) to the U.S. and Japan in 2010 with standard vehicles (probably hybrids) to follow soon after. Since the company has already made it clear they aren’t interested in biofuel technology, seeing the future of cars as electric, and that they have plans to release production-model plug-in hybrids by 2010 (as 2011 models).

Japan has already announced plans to begin infrastructure upgrades that will allow for parking meter-style charging stations to be used by commuters to recharge their cars from a timed parking device, which are meant to augment your vehicle’s charge (not totally recharge it) to extend your range. Nissan has announced plans to integrate “battery swap” stations at service centers around Japan so that electric drivers can pull in, swap batteries for freshly-charged ones, and move along.

Nissan’s other innovation will be their now-patented “eco-pedal.” This is a throttle (gas pedal) that increases resistance against the driver’s foot when acceleration begins to reduce gas mileage. It won’t stop drivers from “punching it,” but it will give them feedback to remind them of the cost of this action. Pretty good idea, though I’m sure we’ll get used to it eventually just as many of us remember getting used to the “loose clutch” in our first jalopy. Expect to see this eco-pedal in Nissan models starting next year.

None of these innovations is perpetual motion, obviously.

Now back to the title of this article: the self-recharging car. A Ukranian company called ApowerCap has been working on ultracapacitor chargers for cars and Nissan has been in talks with them. Nissan has also got some stake in hydrogen, though not nearly what Honda has invested. Other than these innovations, nothing new has been announced from Nissan about how they’re planning to charge a car without plugging it in or burning gasoline. Only that they are working on ways to do just that.

So it’s still all speculation, but what fun speculation it is! Can you imagine an infinity machine with four wheels and a steering wheel? Seats would be nice too, but I’m not gonna push it. I’ve got an old couch I can bolt on there if the machine will drive me around, perpetually, for free!

This Post via SeekingAlpha.com