Nissan is getting serious again about its futuristic BladeGlider EV. The delta-shaped, single-front-seater (with two rear seats) was first introduced in 2013, but after saying it might sell the car, the automaker quietly dropped the idea. Now, Nissan...
We already knew that Nissan's eye-catching electric car concept looked fit for a superhero, but it's honestly not just comic-book premise. A Nissan spokesperson told us that the BladeGlider is a very early prototype aimed towards for-real vehicle production. To its credit, with some geometry skills and practice, you could probably fit two BladeGliders into a standard parking space. Perhaps even more incredibly, the BladeGlider also apparently uses less energy than Nissan's eponymous Leaf EV.
The car draws on a lot of design cues from the DeltaWing, a car that Nissan worked on and one that previously did the rounds at Le Mans, among other raceways. Development then judiciously plucked design and engineering pointers from the ZEOD RC, its hybrid electric race car. As you'd expect from a car that's striving towards the future, the twin doors rise upwards rather than swinging out. Sure, we've seen that before -- 30 years earlier -- but in this concept car the entire cockpit also pitches to the side to make space for the driver's exit or entrance. It's no solo car, however, and there's space for two passengers in the back. And that shape: the front of the car is a meter wide, opening up to 1.8 meters along the back. There aren't many cars out there like the BladeGlider -- check out a shot of the HUD after the break. %Gallery-slideshow122433%
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