autoevolution
 

Nissan to Reduce Its Vehicles' Weight by 15%

Nissan took the harsh but healthy decision of loosing a few pounds in favor of a better fuel consumption. The targeted model will be the new Versa model but other models will follow as, all the models are planned to join the"fitness program."

The Japanese manufacturer decided to put the new Versa on a “low fat diet” this way making it 150 pounds (68 kg) lighter than the model it replaces. Furthermore, Nissan has set a corporate goal of trimming at least 15% “off the weight of every vehicle” it manufactures, Vice President of Product Planning Larry Dominique was quoted as saying by thedetroitbureau.com

For example, the new Versa has about 20% fewer parts and components. Meanwhile by reducing the weight of the overall body, Nissan should be able to switch to smaller brakes and a lighter, less powerful engine.The new Versa Migrates from a 1.8-liter inline-four to a new 1.6-liter engine.

That’s a critical step that the automaker makes in order to meet consumer demands for better mileage, and rapidly increasing government fuel economy demands. Although the manufacturer uses smarter designs and lighter materials in order to make the vehicle lighter the engineers hit a solid brick wall when it comes to vehicle safety. Nissan engineers are forced to add contend that packs the weight back on, thus making the safe/weight battle very tough.

"In the past years manufacturers continued discovering a variety of ways to improve fuel economy, such as 8-speed gearboxes, advanced turbocharging and direct injection. But improvements on the internal combustion engine”are reaching their limits, so we have to lighten up,” said Larry Dominique related by aforementioned source.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories