The 2011 Tokyo Motor Show is in for quite a surprise. Nissan will premier its eighth EV concept at the show this week. The vehicle has as very forward-thinking design and follows in the footsteps of the Nissan Leaf, along with several previous EV concept cars. The Nissan PIVO 3 concept car has several innovative features and is slated to appear around 2016 or 2017 if it hits production lines.

Features of the Nissan PIVO 3 Concept Car:

- Measures less than 10 feet in length and seats 1+ 2
- Includes Automated Valet Parking (AVP) that allows the vehicle to locate a parking spot and situate itself, but requires a smart parking infrastructure to support the technology
- Can charge itself when parked or sell excess energy to the smart grid
- Can make a legal U-turn on roads as small as four meters wide
 - Uses a robotic agent interface and cloud-computing technology
- Has side-view monitors in place of mirrors which use the company's Around View Monitor system

Nissan first released the PIVO 1, an earlier edition of this concept, in 2005, but the company believes the PIVO3 to represent a more "realistic" EV of the future. The design is quite radical, however. Francois Bancon, Deputy Divisional GM for Product Strategy at Nissan explains, "Thanks to the centre driving position, you are not anymore on the side of the car - you are in the centre. That gives you very different visibility, a very different way of driving in general. You are like a driver in a race car - for example, a one-seat race car. That's a big thing because we think only EV can provide this in the vehicle and that'll change completely your relationship with the car together with the others outside of the car."¹ While the company believes the PIVO 3 is an overwhelming candidate for production, there is the challenge of exposing its radical new look and technologies to the market. Nissan says there is currently no concrete decision that the PIVO 3 will be the vehicle to do this.

Wouldn't it be amazing to drive in the center of a vehicle? Crystal Nissan thinks so! In the meantime, we're happy to wait for global technology to catch up to Nissan's concepts with such great 2012 Nissan models currently in stock. Visit us at 937 South Suncoast Blvd Homosassa, FL 34448 today for great deals and friendly service.

 

Source:¹http://www.siliconrepublic.com/green-tech/item/24410-nissan-unveils-its/