Nissan’s 2nd e-Power system on sale in Japan; Serena e-POWER minivan delivers 62 mpg US on JC08
28 February 2018
Nissan Serena e-POWER goes on sale in JapanThe Nissan Serena e-POWER will go on sale in Japan on 1 March, combining the exceptional driving performance of the e-POWER electrified powertrain (earlier post) with the family-friendly features of the popular Serena minivan. The Serena will be the second model with the e-POWER system, which has been a hit with consumers since it was first introduced in the Nissan Note in Japan in 2016.
The series-hybrid e-POWER borrows from the EV technology in the Nissan LEAF. However, unlike the all-battery-electric powertrain of the LEAF, e-POWER adds a small gasoline engine to charge the small, high-output battery when necessary, eliminating the need for an external charger while offering the same high-output. e-Power vehicles do not use grid charging. Nissan plans to launch more e-POWER models globally as part of its Nissan Intelligent Mobility vision for changing how cars are powered, driven and integrated into society.
The Nissan Serena e-POWER is both fun and comfortable to drive. The 100% electric motor drive system treats drivers to powerful acceleration, and the vehicle’s e-POWER Drive mode adds the convenience of being able to speed up or decelerate by using only the accelerator pedal. With optimized engine management and noise reduction measures throughout the vehicle body, the Nissan Serena e-POWER transcends its class in terms of quietness.
Combined with the model’s aerodynamic body, the e-POWER system delivers fuel economy of 26.2 km/L (62 mpg US) according to Japan’s JC08 test.
First introduced in 1991, the Serena has evolved to meet the needs of families through the years. The Nissan Serena e-POWER marks a major technological update, with the addition of e-POWER, e-POWER Drive mode and other features such as Manner Mode—which enables the vehicle to drive quietly at night by limiting the use of the gasoline engine that charges the battery. Drivers can take full advantage of Manner Mode by using the vehicle’s Charge Mode to charge the battery in advance.
The Nissan Serena e-POWER also comes with innovative safety features such as ProPILOT autonomous driving technology for single-lane driving on highways. With additional equipment including Intelligent Emergency Braking, Lane-Departure Warning System, High Beam Adjust and Emergency Assist for Missed Pedal Application (optional), the Serena e-POWER adheres to the Japanese government’s highest safety standards.
e-POWER acceptance. The e-POWER system has met with strong acceptance in Japan. The Nissan Note took the Nº 1 spot in Japan’s new car sales rankings for January, as the popularity of the e-POWER electrified powertrain helped make the model the best-selling compact car in the country.
Sales of the e-POWER version of the Note reached more than 100,000 vehicles in the first 11 months.
With this series hybrid type of architecture you'd think you could very easily adapt the power generation and battery storage configurations if fuel cells and or batteries become more competitive. If they were able to sell 100,000 E-Notes in less than a year then it must be able to meet the performance needs of a fairly substantial segment of the market.
Posted by: Calgarygary | 28 February 2018 at 08:44 AM
I'm just surprised they managed to produce so many at launch.
That's a very quick EV ramp up.
Posted by: CheeseEater88 | 28 February 2018 at 11:14 PM
Series hybrid should involve a much simpler technology compared to the parallel-series as employed in Prius.
And series hybrid being more fuel efficient and faster is believable as Note ePower has demonstrated not only in technology, but also in sales beating Prius for many months last year until the QA issues forced the production to decline. And in 2018-01, Note has overtaken Prius again in Japanese market.
I think the automakers feared that it could easily be adaptable to plugins, electric, fuel-cell and even the combination of fuel-cell / plugin combo. So they simply reduced the research in this area. And Nissan wanted to overtake Toyota & VW and also use the motor used in Leaf and hence they took this route. Using this technlogy in more models will help Nissan recoup the cost and also make it popular.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 02 March 2018 at 05:29 PM
Though simple, this serial hybrid setup is wearing out the battery pack much faster than Toyota's HSD hybrid. For that reason Nissan chooses to release the e-Power in Japan and not in the USA. Cars in Japan are driven 1/3rd the mileage of cars in the USA.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 03 March 2018 at 12:53 AM
@Roger Pham That is not the reason at all, the like all hybrid high speed affect efficiency, driving at 60 MPH is fine or OK, but 80 MPH will hurt it efficiency. Furthermore Nissan have 17 years of experience in hybrid development with first hybrid release in 2000 in Japan, and no 2007 altima was not nissan first hybrid, nissan develop there own two motor hybrid system, so they should have some sort of experience with battery, and nissan also have E 4WD drive system from 2002, which behaves technical like the current EV series .
Posted by: c b | 15 November 2018 at 09:50 AM
@Roger Pham Nissan one motor two clutch is a water down version of nissan two motor , two clutch, as they remove the motor/generator and only have a traction motor doing both job.
Posted by: c b | 15 November 2018 at 09:54 AM