It is the Ariya’s lunar counterpart.
Nissan has been very active over the past few days, presenting many interesting concepts. The prototypes were made for Earth, but the Japanese company has a new concept for space exploration. As part of a research project, the marque has teamed up to reveal a prototype lunar rover.
It made its debut at the Nissan Futures Event, where it was Ariya Single Seater Concept The lunar rover also made its debut. It studies new technologies to improve controllability, which is an important factor in space exploration. A good lunar rover should be capable of traversing the moon’s rough, rocky and undulating terrain while being energy efficient.
The technology used in the Nissan lunar rover is similar to the concept of a single-seat electric sportscar. It utilizes the Leaf’s motor control technology and the e-4ORCE all wheel control technology used on the Ariya electric cross-over. Nissan claims that the technology improves the lunar exploration vehicle’s performance on difficult terrain.
“Automobiles are used in many different driving situations. “We aim to achieve the best driving performance through research and development. We believe that the knowledge gained from the joint research with JAXA can lead to innovations for our vehicles that will benefit customers,” Toshiyuki Nagajima, general manager, Advanced Vehicle Engineering Department, responsible for e-4ORCE control design at Nissan, states.
We can see that Nissan is looking for bidirectional benefits from this research project if we read between the lines. The technologies that are currently available in the automotive industry will be used to create space exploration vehicles. The knowledge gained from the prototype lunar rover could also be applied to future electric cars for customers.