Renault-Nissan Alliance Electrifies Challenge Bibendum

The Renault-Nissan Alliance's 100% electric vehicles have emerged in triumph after a tough series of tests and evaluations in the annual Challenge Bibendum rally (18-22 May) in Berlin, demonstrating the efficiency of the Alliance's zero-emission technology.

Nissan LEAF won the Urban Vehicles Rally, held on a city driving course designed to simulate the everyday conditions likely to face a city car: the rally was open to conventionally powered vehicles, as well as cars, motorcycles and bicycles powered by alternative energy, including electricity and hydrogen.

The 30-km course incorporated typical city features such as roundabouts, junctions and stop-start progress as well as stretches of road allowing speeds of up to 80 km/h.

All participants taking part had to complete the course within a set time and tests included checks for local pollution, noise and energy efficiency with acceleration and braking tests performed after the 30-km run had been completed.

Nissan LEAF took first place overall, beating competitors such as Citroen C-zéro and Peugeot Ion, and won three environmental awards, including local emission testing, fuel efficiency and the well-to-wheel test in which it recorded an estimated 55 g/km CO2. Nissan LEAF also won a performance award for its accelerative capability and took a design award.

As reported earlier, Renault Fluence Z.E., due on sale in the autumn, won the 300-km Inter City Challenge beating conventional vehicles, as well as other battery-powered challengers including Tesla. The car needed only one battery swap to complete the race.

The cars in the rally were tested for their environmental performance, energy consumption and manoeuvrability, as well as acceleration and breaking capabilities. Fluence Z.E.'s well-to-wheel CO2 output was 57 g/km, or 8% better than the vehicle's homologation figure.

"The tests are the same for all vehicles taking part so it is a level playing field. The results show that the 100% electric Renault Fluence Z.E. and Nissan LEAF can more than hold their own with conventional cars when it comes to dynamic performance yet comprehensively outscores them on environmental performance," said Hidetoshi Watanabe, corporate vice president, Global Zero Emission Vehicle Business Unit, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

Challenge Bibendum, created and sponsored by Michelin and now in its 11th year, brought together more than 5,000 people from the worlds of politics, business, industry, science, society and the media to discuss the challenges facing future sustainable mobility and to discover the latest technologies.

Together with its Alliance partner Renault, Nissan aims to be a leader in zero-emission mobility. By 2015, the Alliance will have the capacity to produce 500,000 electric vehicles and batteries at its plants around the world by 2015, making it the only automotive group in the world building EVs and batteries on this scale.

Notes to editors:

• Challenge Bibendum was first run in 1998 in Paris and has since been held in American, China, Japan, Brasil and other European capitals. This is the first year for both Renault and Nissan to participate with electric vehicles.
• Nissan LEAF was voted 2011 European Car of the Year by a panel of distinguished motoring journalists and also won the World Car of the Year title. Deliveries of the car began in late 2010 in the US, Japan and Europe.

The zero-emission vehicle is powered by a compact electric motor in the front of the car driving the front wheels. The AC motor develops 80 kW of power and 280 Nm of torque, enough for a maximum speed of more than 145 km/h (90 mph). The electric motor is ‘fuelled' by a laminated lithium-ion battery with a power output of more than 90 kW. When fully charged, the car has a range of about 175 km (NEDC).