New looks, new tech, and now smarter still.
Nissan has confirmed that its new Leaf electric family hatchback will be debuting in September, and will come with the marque’s ProPilot advanced driver assistance (ADAS) technology. The brand has gone further to provide a video of the technology in action, which also shows off the cars’ digital driver instrumentation behind the wheel coming to life with ProPilot engaged.
While the first-generation Leaf was a fairly benign looking thing, the new one promises a more aggressive design inspired by the Micra hatch, a direction implied with a teased headlight and its sharper, angular lenses. Spy shots have also revealed that the Leaf will take on a more athletic form too, with curves and creases where the previous generation opted to just go with flat surfacing.
ProPilot, the highlight of today’s teaser, can be activated with a single button. ProPilot then takes over steering, acceleration and braking functionality, assisting in heavy-traffic situations and lightening the burden over longer journeys. ProPilot will, in the future, offer greater autonomy as Nissan will update the system throughout the Leaf’s lifetime to unlock more and more features as time goes by. Eventually, ProPilot will be able to navigate intersections too.
Nissan Europe’s director for electric vehicles Gareth Dunmore said,
“The ultimate embodiment of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, the new Nissan LEAF will be the most advanced, accessible EV on the market, today. Adding ground-breaking ProPILOT technology to the new Nissan LEAF will prove invaluable in unlocking many of the benefits of electric vehicles, creating less congested, cleaner cities for future generations.”
With the new generation, the Nissan Leaf may adopt the same multi-tier product lineup as Tesla has with their cars, with some models able to offer up to 550km of range from a battery pack double the size of the current car. The Nissan Leaf is expected to lead the way for Nissan to achieve its sales targets, hoping that 20% of all sales by 2020 will come from fully-electric vehicles.
