Right on Cube

The Japanese back-room styling people have never lacked for quirky, box-shaped ideas.

Nissan in particular, although by no means exclusively, has come up with some doozies in the past and this one, the Cube, is even in its second generation.

Snapped by the Carparazzi team behind security fencing on a corporate test track, the angular Nissan is not, like the Denki (Japanese for electric) Cube shown at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, purely electric but uses a regular petrol engine.

The all-electric show car used lithium-ion batteries giving a range of approximately 160km and a top speed of around 120km/h.

A petrol-electric hybrid Cube is seen as a likely addition to the range though, as part of Nissan's "Green" programme that is looking at a wide range of energy-saving and emission-limiting initiatives.

Nissan research and development, in co-operation with NEC Corporation, is working on enhancing battery performance and reducing battery costs, with an in-house developed hybrid vehicle expected in 2011.

What the Cube, right now, is all about is interior space, with more than ample passenger stretching room supplied by its upright, lofty shapes.

Stylistic silliness does, sometimes, have a sensible side, although it could be presumed the aerodynamics would be little better than the house brick the Cube so closely resembles.

Like virtually every Nissan vehicle in Japan, the next Cube will be available with an all-wheel drive system in which a couple of electric motors on the rear wheels can be enjoined with the normal front-wheel drive to help out when extra traction is needed.

In Australia, we are not alone. A couple of years ago Nissan Australia marketing boss Ross Booth said the "naughty, relaxing, compact and agile" Cube could even be considered for our market.

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