Photos of under the hood!

Oh Nissan, you tease us so:






From this vid:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07QFRevo7WE[/youtube]

Ok.. I'm a little confused. I imagined that there wouldn't be much that needed to be serviced in this car, but it looks to me like you need an additional tool to get to anything. Off the top of my head, I'm assuming I would at least need access to brake and window washer fluid. Will we really need an additional tool to get to these things?

I assume Nissan is just messing with us. It should be easy to access the washer and brake fluids at the very least.

I'm sure everything will be revealed this summer.

They don't want to show what is under the hood - yet No point in giving the competition any hints is my guess.

Yeah, if this LEAF is like one from the US Tour, well I don't think it has all the EV parts...Basically just a shell to show it off (the Nissan EV mule that people get to see and sometimes test ride is a Versa with EV innards)

So this might not have any EV parts, or it could and Nissan is hiding them....That black cover will not be on the finished model...IMHO



Gavin

ps...Nice video. I like how they let the potential customers drive the test mule. We usually see people in the passenger seat getting a ride along....

Thanks for posting that.

Gavin

This particular car can be driven. I've seen it move. It's speed limited to something like 5mph. Of course, you could be right, just because it moves doesn't mean it has Leaf parts under there.

If you look on Youtube, there are tons of mule test drives by average people. Pretty much everyone has the same impressions: quiet, responsive, quick.

Love the pictures....even though it makes it look like one of my old Matchbox models

Bicster said:

If you look on Youtube, there are tons of mule test drives by average people. Pretty much everyone has the same impressions: quiet, responsive, quick.

Click to expand...

Yeah it's great that Nissan is letting average people drive the mule. I haven't seen that from Aptera or GM or others. Likely they don't want somebody crashing a million dollar prototype...still...

Well Mits has given some iMiEV to people on loan...Chelsea had one, the funny gent in England has one for a year...lucky basta....

Gavin

mitch672 said:

They don't want to show what is under the hood - yet No point in giving the competition any hints is my guess.

Click to expand...

I understand this in theory, but they have been so incredibly open in other ways - the cut-away views of the motor and of the batteries, for example. It just seems weird to me - if they didn't want people to see under the hood, then... why did they open the hood? I mean, I can even understand putting some kind of cover over the motor in case someone snuck up and opened the hood - but in the video it looked like it was one of the gloved people opening it up. I would guess that a gloved person behind the ropes is someone who is supposed to be there.

Not arguing with you, really... and I'm certainly not trying to turn this into some kind of conspiracy theory - I'm just confused.

I've changed my mind - I'm going to propose my own conspiracy theory - the Nissan Leaf is not an electric car - it's really powered by squirrels. The port in the front - it's not for electricity, it's for water and nuts.

It is quite possible the is the production intent design (even though my first reaction was that they won't to show). All they need to expose are two inlets for the fluids. May be one way to keep everything clean and dustfree. Also there are high voltages below (lvl 3 charging etc) - so that may be a safety issue.

mitch672 said:

They don't want to show what is under the hood - yet No point in giving the competition any hints is my guess.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if Aptera had a peek under the hood they could steal their ideas and beat them to market.

When will the first production Leaf go to China, or Korea, or GM?

LTLFTcomposite said:

mitch672 said:

They don't want to show what is under the hood - yet No point in giving the competition any hints is my guess.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if Aptera had a peek under the hood they could steal their ideas and beat them to market.

Click to expand...

I think if Nissan gave Aptera the blueprints, schematics, and CAD drawings, it still wouldn't help Aptera, they have a pretty large NIH problem (Not Invented Here). They can't seem to get out of their own way.

JasonT said:

I've changed my mind - I'm going to propose my own conspiracy theory - the Nissan Leaf is not an electric car - it's really powered by squirrels. The port in the front - it's not for electricity, it's for water and nuts.

Click to expand...

Total BS.

It's powered by hamsters. The squirrel's tail would get caught in the little wheel thingy.

The cooling system is to keep the hamsters' living quarters cool, so the "reserve" hamsters will be ready to "jump in" when one wants to accelerate.

Standards for the exhaust systems and fuel input are in the last two years of a 7-year study, exactly where they have been stalled for 14 years. The conflict seems to be that the EU wants powdered exhaust (to be better absorbed by the environment), but the Americans want pellets (that they intend to collect and burn as a carbon-neutral energy source).
No international resolution is in sight.

(no, not really)

evnow said:

It is quite possible the is the production intent design (even though my first reaction was that they won't to show). All they need to expose are two inlets for the fluids. May be one way to keep everything clean and dustfree. Also there are high voltages below (lvl 3 charging etc) - so that may be a safety issue.

Click to expand...

EXACTLY. There are no user serviceable parts under the hood and the only items would be coolant res, brake fluid and washer fluid. The more difficult it is for users to get near HV lines, the better for Nissan.

No hamster's condos? Darn!

But, I agree, a more "protected" environment could be the answer.

Hi all,
I'm the guy who posted that original video on youtube. Based on the comments and questions this raised, I'll try to answer them as best I can.
The Leaf and the EV-12 mule are the same cars that have just completed the US tour. The Leaf does have a basic drivetrain installed but it is only a very low power/short range one, intended for manoeuvring the car around at press events and to allow it to be driven on and off the transporter. So far, only higher profile journalists have been allowed to drive the Leaf. Us mere mortals can only drive the EV-12. Having said that, the test car has the latest version of the Leaf drivetrain installed and gives a very good idea of what the completed car will be like to drive - That's me at the end of the video driving the car.
As you can see, under the hood is a secondary cover which (as Evnow said correctly) will probably be a feature of the finished car to keep dirt out of the motor & controller, and also fingers away from high voltage parts. I'm sure washer and brake fluid reservoirs will be easily accessible. The cover is fastened down by 8 torx or allen bolts (I can't remember which).
There was a french guy there (the one with the white gloves in the video) who was responsible for looking after the Leaf and stopping anyone from touching it. As far as I know, no one has been allowed to look under the hood before but I thought 'what the hell' and asked if he could open it and hey presto .
The underside of the car is completely faired with an aerodynamic undertray and it really does look like the underside of a matchbox car!

Chris

Chris,
THANKS for the great first-hand info!