Between a car and a motorcycle, cutting-edge solution from Japan to urban traffic congestion
Is it a car? Or is it a motorbike? You could easily argue on what Nissan Land Glider really looks like, but it doubtless represents an interesting transversal solution to tackle problems related to urban mobility, traffic congestion and pollution in the 21st century overcrowded cities.
The Land Glider concept vehicle was designed by the R&D Nissan department and was firstly presented in the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The radical idea was to combine together the points of strength of both cars and motorcycles to give birth to a new way of conceiving private urban – but not only – mobility. The result was an ultra lightweight two-seats electric vehicle, which moves on four wheels but can be driven as a motorcycle, leaning in curves to a tilt of 17 degrees. Furthermore, Land Glider’s dimensions are ideal for urban mobility: 3,00 metres of length, 1,41 metres of height and only 1,1 metres of width.
What can actually be interesting under a SWOMM perspective is that Land Glider is completely electric. In fact, the vehicle is fuelled by two electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries placed in the rear beneath the floor. Moreover, Nissan’s engineers invented a revolutionary wireless charging system, directly recharging batteries by electromagnetic induction and without need of any contact, while shopping at supermarket or stopping at a motorway service station.
With Land Glider, researchers offered a serious set of solutions to tackle the complex issue of the eco-friendly private urban mobility. In this case (as well as with regard to other new electric vehicles) the main variable to be considered is the price, and the concrete possibility to meet the customers’ demand and needs with this product. Market mechanisms will determine whether this zero-emission “half-a-car half-a-motorcycle” will be a viable future way of driving clean in this century busy cities.
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