Nissan is a highly renowned global brand famous for its powerful yet quality products like the Nissan 370Z and the latest to its edition the new Nissan Micra. But hardly any of us knows the most unique thing about Micra, which is the Nissan V-Platform on which it based.
To give you a brief introduction about this platform its our duty to tell you that the V-platform was first introduced by General Motors in 1967 for rear wheel drives and was soon brought to front wheel driven cars by 1987. V-Platform is also written as V-body or in a simpler way to tell you V stands for Versatile.
The name versatile has been given to this platform since the cars based on it are lighter, roomer and most importantly cost effective and Nissan presently has two cars on this platform,one Micra and the other a sedan which is to be launched in India and is also planning to bring in an MPV to replace Note by late 2011.
Specifications Of V-Platform Based Cars
Engine
The majority of V-platform cars will be powered by new ‘low-friction’ three-cylinder engines, which are speculated to be in capacities ranging from 0.9 to 1.2-litre with possibilities of turbochargers with most of the versions.
Transmission
The company will install a newly engineered, compact, ‘low-friction’ CVT automatic transmission,having higher top ratio than normal transmissions.
Other Features
- It underpins cars with weight up to 1600kg
- The largest possible engine for family of these cars is a 1.5 Liter CRDI turbo-charged diesel unit
- Maximum torque output is 210 Nm
- 18 percent reduced number of components
- Highly fuel efficient
The V-platform focuses on reducing the overall weight of the vehicle as well as minimizing the number of components to be installed.
The weight of these cars is reduced by simplifying the car’s systems and by reducing components which could be justified by the facts that the new cars contain a 3kg lighter exhaust system,a 2.2kg lighter and smaller fuel tank along with the least number of components for the cockpit module.
We optimistically look forward towards the upcoming sedan and wish that it does well in the Indian automobile market.
