e-Power future for Nissan utes

A system like the set-ups that power railway locomotives could be the future for light commercials – including the utes and dual-cabs Aussies love.

Nissan’s e-Power is a hybrid system via which a petrol engine charges onboard batteries which in turn power an electric drivetrain. With no ability to plug-in to mains electricity to charge, it is in essence an automotive version of the tech that heavy-duty railway locomotives have used for over 100 years.

Nissan introduced e-Power into passenger cars in 2016 via the Japanese market Note hatch. This year the car-maker will debut an e-Power version of the Serena people-mover/minivan – again for the Japanese domestic market. However, it is also trialing e-Power vehicles in India, Indonesia and Thailand.

e-Power is a hybrid. However, unlike conventional hybrid systems which use a low-output electric motor mated to a petrol (or diesel) engine to drive the wheels when the battery is low (or at high speeds/loads), in the e-POWER system, the engine is not connected to the wheels and simply charges the battery. A full EV-sized motor is used for true EV performance.

Nissan senior executives have suggested e-Power will play a part in the brands future sports car line-up. However, executive vice-president and boss of Advanced Development, Hideyuki Sakamoto, says it’s even better suited to light commercials.

“EV doesn’t like heavy vehicles. And pick-up trucks and heavy, bigger crew-sized SUVs also needs towing performance -- is not so good [for EVs],” Sakamoto explained in a roundtable during this week’s Tokyo motor show.

“However, e-Power our new type of series hybrid… it really creates bigger torque… And, we are now starting to study how this type of technology can be applied to this type of [commercial] vehicle,” he stated.

Sakamoto says e-Power can cover the weak points of EV and delivers electric powertrain levels of instant torque without the range anxiety or infrastructure impacts.

Nissan claims e-Power delivers an efficiency benefit of 1.3-1.6 times a comparable conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. The engine always operates in its most efficient rev-range and acceleration and smoothness are aligned to EVs rather than ‘normal’ cars, its experts claim.

e-Power has already been linked to new products in the van space. Pick-ups could, however, be a stretch.

The Renault Nissan Alliance senior vice-president in charge of light commercial vehicles business unit, Ashwani Gupta, is not as clearly wed to e-Power technology as Sakamoto.

Indeed, the man who relaunched Datsun for the group and is pushing for the US market Titan large pick-up to go global, suggests LCVs like Navara may require their own electrification solution.

Gupta was politic regarding e-Power when asked if he would use it in the next-generation Navara but pointed to a more conventional parallel hybrid solution.

“For us [conventional] hybrid makes sense,” Gupta told motoring.com.au sidelining the e-Power discussion.

“It’s very important to use technology that gives exclusivity to the truck [pick-up] owner.

“They work hard, play hard — we need to understand which technology achieves that,” the LCV boss stated.