Nissan Has A "Massive" Plan To Save Mitsubishi From Near Death

[EyeInTheSky]

http://fortune.com/2016/10/19/nissan-mitsubishi-carlos-ghosn/

This could be good for Mitsubishi financially, but I don't know about the design direction. He has turned around a couple companies, but his flagship offering with Nissan was the Leaf. Are we going to see an all-electric zero emission Montero? At least electric motors are torque-heavy....

 

[coffeegoat]

I've often wondered if the best use of a heavy hybrid (full electric drivetrain - gas/diesel motor only for electricity generation) would be an heavy duty off road vehicle. I mean all of the heavy mining equipment vehicles operate this way, big Komatsu's, LeTourneau's, Cat's etc. It means you can stick a crazy powerful motor in the axle/hub with a planetary gear drive and get torque out the wazoo. They aren't usually designed for great turn down, but I can see the technical reasons why it would an awesome way to go.

Imagine a little 2.0 liter turbo diesel generator tied to a 300hp - 800ft*lb electric drive system with a plug-in battery. Because you could have motors in both axles you'd skip all the heavy drivetrain stuff (transfer box, gear box, driveshafts), give it side pipes so no exhaust/muffler to break, on road it would be ultra quiet, peppy, and economical, and off road you could crawl along at full torque/power over whatever nature threw at you. Weight and heat rejection might be a problem, but I would imagine solvable...

 

[Deleted member 144409]

Here I was, trying to get to sleep and you have to put those visions in my mind. I'll be awake for days. Teslubishi.