Gadgetory

the nissan leaf has been out for just over a year and now nissan is trying out as electric drive system in another car this is the env two hundred this little electric utility van is based on nissan's nv200 commercial vehicle now it's got the exact same drivetrain as the Nissan Leaf that means an 80 kilowatt electric motor and a 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack driving the front wheels and it also has the charge port up front just like the leaf now the env two hundred has a lot of utility it's got these large doors in front which allow easy access and sliding doors on the side it's also got a large cargo area and of course these middle row seats pulled down or you can take them out entirely to maximize the cargo space now as the env 200 is a concept vehicle nissan has put a lot of high-tech gear in the dashboard we have this navigation system with stereo it's a big touchscreen we also have an LCD instrument cluster that stuff you probably wouldn't find in a national commercial vehicle but nissan also says this could be a family vehicle like a small camper or something like that in which case this stuff might make sense because it's a larger vehicle than the Nissan Leaf it probably got less range of a Nissan hasn't said what the range is now although Nissan is only calling the env two hundred a concept it is actually testing the car with the Japanese Postal Service so it could be something they're looking to put into production pretty soon i'm wayne cunningham reporting from detroit you