Nissan introduces electric racing car for La Mans 2014

ZEOD-RC, with the capability to reach speeds of more than 300km/h, is set to prove its abilities in next year’s La Mans race, it was announced today. ZEOD RC, standing for the Zero Emission on Demand Racing Car, will provide Nissan with an opportunity totest innovative electric technologies including variants of electric drive power train. In 2014, it is going to compete in the world’s oldest 24-hour sports car race near the French town of La Mans in thecategory of innovative vehicles. "Nissan has become a global leader in the development of zero emission automotive technology and the Nissan ZEOD RC will allow us to further develop those capabilities using the toughest endurance race in the world as a mobile test bed for our planned La Mans Prototype 1 (LM P1) power train," said Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President andExecutive Committee member at Nissan Motor Company Limited. Nissan has become a global leader in the electric-car market after introducing its Nissan LEAF (standing for Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car) in 2010. "The Nissan ZEOD RC is a natural progression that follows on from the development of the Nissan LEAF road car and the LEAF RC race car prototype. The technologies developed through the programme will form part of future innovations for road cars,” Palmer said. Nissan LEAF uses an 80kW front mounted engine, the same that is being used in the Nissan LEAF RC race car. However, the current batterytechnology of LEAF doesn’t suffice the needs of an electric racing car competing at a Le Mans type of event. Ben Bowlby, the designer of ZEOD RC, believes the development of the racing carwill help to tackle the obstacles on the way to ‘electrification’ of motorsport. Drop your comment.