Nissan Shows Off Esflow Electric Sports Car

Two-seat, rear-drive 'leccy coupe concept revealed ahead of Geneva debut

This is the Nissan Esflow, an all-electric sports car concept that the Japanese maker is set to unveil to the public at the Geneva motor show in March.

"It looks like a sports car, handles like a sports car and performs like one too," says the Nissan press spiel. "But Esflow is different to every other sports car yet built: it's electric." (Should we mention Tesla at this point?)

The Esflow uses technology pioneered in the award-winning-but-dull Nissan Leaf, to create a two-seater, rear-drive coupe with a claimed range of 240km (150 miles) and 0-62mph in less than five seconds.

Beneath the swoopy (dare we say phallic?) lines, there are twin electric motors mounted (unexpectedly, given the design's nose-tastic nature) amidships, just above the rear wheels. These two motors independently control the left and right wheels, and so the torque is optimised to ensure optimum stability and traction.

Power comes from the same laminated lithium-ion battery packs used in the Nissan Leaf, but here the packs are located along the axis of the front and rear wheels. This, says Nissan, centralises the mass of the car, and thus puts its rotation point close to the driver's hips (which presumably will give it that 'pivoty' feel that a good sports car chassis offers).

The aluminium chassis keeps things light, while the exterior has been designed to maximise forward vision (like a fighter plane, apparently), with ultra-slim A-pillars possible courtesy of roll bars incorporated in to the structure behind the seat and designed to take the entire load of the car in the event of a roll over.

Inside are fly-by-wire controls, and such weight saving measures as seats integrated into the rear bulkhead. Said seats are upholstered in gold leather and perforated gold suede, while the doors are trimmed in dark blue leather and suede. Sounds subtle. On the outside, the colour scheme chosen for the concept car is inspired by glaciers - highly reflective solidified liquid with blue tints in its shadows (we assume that's the paint, rather than a description of a glacier).

But the best bit of all is that Nissan seems to have gone to quite a lot of trouble to describe the perfect Esflow owner. So apologies if you're not like Daniel (see below), but you can't have an Esflow...

"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 (sic - surely cinch? - Ed) 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."

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badgerracing

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