FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6 March 2000
MICRA PARTS CREATE ELECTRIFYING VEHICLE
A most unique and environmentally-friendly vehicle has been designed and built by a small team of engineers, with the help and support of Nissan in Sunderland.
The Sunderland plant donated the wheels, suspension, steering, brakes, instrumentation and wiring from a Micra to help construct an electric composite vehicle (ECV), capable of speeds in excess of 60 mph. The aerodynamic two-seater ECV is an open sided vehicle, a far cry from the traditional “mini-moke” style resort vehicle, and costs under 1.5p per mile to run.
Jeff Harrison, from Mawdsley Bleachers ECV in Brampton, Cumbria, came up with the idea for the “Fox Vehicle” back in 1995. Once he had secured financial backing from Peter Mawdsley, he selected a team of engineers and with the fundamental parts and advice from Nissan in Sunderland, construction of the vehicle began in 1998.
“When we decided to build this vehicle, we knew it would be unrealistic to try and compete with volume manufacturers so we selected a niche market,” said Mr Harrison. “The result was an electric resort-style vehicle which will be used on closed sites such as estates and holiday complexes.
“We are so grateful to Nissan for all their help with this project,” he added. “When we first came up with the idea, we had no proof of our abilities but Nissan had faith in us and gave us tremendous support.
Because of this we have now seen our project through to fruition – our first model, which we have called ‘Silver Fox’, has just been completed.”
Roy Shaw of Nissan’s design department said: “When we were approached for help we knew there was potential behind it. The idea was so original that we were delighted to be able to help by supplying components and advice when required.”
The chassis platform has been designed to utilise the award winning, patented network injection moulding (NIM) process, which has been widely used in the petrochemical industry but never before used to form a vehicle body. As the ECV chassis platform is a load bearing structure, the team had to design the floor pan complete with mounting points and threaded inserts to be moulded in one operation. The vehicle is ‘fuelled’ by charging batteries plugged into a domestic 13 amp socket. When fully charged, the ECV has a range of 50-60 miles.
At the end of the vehicle’s life, 70 per cent of the composite structure can be recycled.
Nissan’s £1.5 billion plant in Sunderland now employs 5,200 people. Last year the company produced 271,157 Micra and new Primera vehicles. The company’s operations in the UK include vehicle styling, engineering, manufacturing, distribution and sales and industrial machinery; employing around 6,000 people directly.
ends…
Editor’s Note: This vehicle will be displayed and demonstrated at the Knockhill race circuit, on Friday 17 March.
For further information please contact:
Dawn Waugh, Nissan Motor Mfg. (UK) Ltd 0191 419 3300
E-mail: dawn.waugh@nissan-nmuk.co.uk
Andy Whysall, Mawdsley Bleachers ECV 01697 741 912
Editor’s note:
All Nissan news releases can be downloaded from the Newspress website at http://www.newspress.co.uk 26216/060300
