Add new comment

Nissan is going to make 2 changes in the next 12 months, one is related to making it a leader in self-driivng auto-pilot cars, but the second is even more interesting, which is going to change how you know Nissan LEAF. The company wants to add a gasoline engine to Nissan LEAFs for two reasons.

But first, let's see what happened. According to Automotive News Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn outlined both technologies as part of Nissan's annual shareholders meeting. These two changes will debut in Japan sometimes in March-April of 2017 and then Nissan will introduce them in the US, European and Chinese markets.

The first is the deployment of Nissan's upcoming autonomous-drive technologies: a single-lane self-driving steering feature. This technology will provide steering assistance in a single lane without driver input. We don't know more details yet as Ghosn apparently didn't go into much details on this.

The second is much more interesting. It will change how you know Nissan LEAF. It will change Nissan LEAF from all-electric to a hybrid plug-in car.

Why Nissan wants to turn LEAF into a plug-in hybrid? For two reasons. This will add a range to Nissan LEAF and cut the cost. As a results in few years you will have a Nissan LEAF with a lower price, longer range and a plug-in hybrid version.

Both technologies will debut in Japan-market vehicles in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. The company will subsequently introduce the autonomous-drive function in the U.S., Europe and China.

The New LEAF system is dubbed as E-Power, which has already been introduced in Nissan's Gripz concept. Gripz is a crossover. TorqueNews had played with this idea that one day Nissan LEAF may be like Chevy Volt in 2015, when introducing Nissan Gripz concent. See Nissan Gripz: What if LEAF Wanted to be a Chevy Volt?

Now this car is coming just in time and perhaps a little earlier than Tesla's Model 3, with possibly a lower price. Would you prefer Model 3 or Nissan LEAF Plug-in Hybrid?