Nissan reveals its future

Nissan didn't really have any big show cars on its stand in Geneva, instead choosing to talk about its future mobility and a couple of models that show off some of the brand's fledgling autonomous technology.

Nissan's Intelligent Mobility vision is about building on the company's work in electric vehicles and car-to-car comms to bring self-driving cars ever closer. This was exemplified in the Intelligent Driving System (IDS) concept car, which uses a complex system of sensors and artificial intelligence to allow its vehicles to drive carefully around the world's roads - with the aim of a 'zero fatalities future'. Nissan says IDS will have on-road drive technology demos in 2016.

The first step on that road will be a 'Piloted Drive' Qashqai, which will roll off the production line in 2017. This crossover will be able to drive autonomously in a single lane, in heavy traffic conditions on motorways. More Piloted Drive cars are planned by 2020.

Linked in to that were the 'Premium Concept' Qashqai and X-Trail crossovers, which showed what the brand's models could look like with different design and styling features; sort of like Ford has done with Vignale, except not an out-and-out sub-brand. These two wore plenty of carbon fibre, 20-inch wheels and enhanced 'V-motion' grilles, with really upmarket interiors. The Qashqai Premium Concept also featured Piloted Drive 1.0 technology.

Meanwhile, learnings from its electric vehicle technology are being fed back into its wider business. Nissan's new European office will have the world's largest energy management system, including 64 Nissan Leaf batteries to power the stationary energy storage system, plus 100 vehicle-to-grid chargers to form the largest ever grid-integrated EV system.

In connected news, Nissan has shown off the 'fuel station of the future', in association with renowned architects, Foster and Partners. And they say said fuel station could be the car itself. The company posited that, with inductive (wireless) charging, battery storage, vehicle-to-grid and over-the-air connectivity, Nissan EVs might be the power source for homes, offices and more.

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