Now, Japan is mostly a hybrid country. When I go out, there are many hybrids on the road. When you hear the word “Hybrid” what do you imagine? Prius? Aqua? I’m sure most of you are, and I’m one of them. Needless to say, Toyota’s hybrid system is really sophisticated.

Since everyone knows their system, I now would like to talk about Nissan “e-Power system”. To cut the long story short, the “e-Power” system uses an electric motor while petrol engine generates electricity. More simply, it is an EV that you don’t need to recharge. (The motor is same as Nissan Leaf, and generates power of equivalent by 2 litre petrol engine.)

If a pure EV, battery needs to be recharged, but if e-Power, the petrol engine generates electricity. It is a technology of combining all the benefit from EV, and convenience of petrol engine based electric generator. The major concern for pure EV might be the charging station. There are quite a lot of them in Japan, but you won’t be 100% stress free. But on e-power, engine is used as a generator purpose only.

I’ve once saw on youtube that Serena e-power did a distance more than 1000kms on one single 55 litre petrol tank. My 1998 5MT turbo charged 4WD wagon did only 600kms at best. Isn’t it enough comparing to other Hybrid system?

The e-power is:

*Powerful : Produces equivalent power of 2 litre petrol engine
*Quiet : The electric motor is used to run, engine is used as a generator only
*Economical : The fuel economy is 34.0km/l to 37.2km/l on catalogue, should have nearly 20-30 km/l on city/highway on real life.

Nissan e-Power is available on:

• Note e-power
• Serena e-power

By 2022, these models might be added in their range.

• X-Trail
• Juke
• Cube

By the way, did you know that the “NOTE” was an acronym of Japanese words explaining the different boot utility mode?

N: Nidan Trunk mode (Twin trunk mode
O: Open mode
T: Tappuri(large capacity) Mode
E: Easy flat mode

(I actually didn’t know until I did closer research)

Thanks for time reading. Hope to see you soon.

Articled Written By Takashi Yokoyama © 2019-11-06