A consumer or more specifically a car buyer would always love to take home a product which consumes less fuel and travels more. No doubt looks and luxury are important for a car but fuel economy is equally important and does act sometimes as the deciding factor.
Plenty of innovations and engine technologies are being offered to buyers who want performance along with reasonable fuel consumptions but apart from all there technologies, the best way to increase the fuel efficiency is by reducing the weight of a vehicle.
Manufacturers have been actively participating in developing new techniques and materials which help reduce the car’s weight without compromising the safety and recently Nissan has announced that it will trim the weight of all of its vehicles by at least 15 %.
Evidently the new Nissan Versa sedan which is to be rolled out in the International market soon will be 150 pounds lighter than the model it is supposed to replace. The new strategy is more of a corporate milestone that the company has set and it will ensure that they do reduce weights of their models.
According to the company, engineers are working on bringing new and lighter models but following the rules and regulations set by authorities for vehicle safety, the weight is put up again. They stress that modern advancements like 8 speed gearboxes, turbocharging and direct injection have improved the efficiency but at the end of the day they are bound by certain limits and this is where the role of weight reduction comes in.
Nissan has been using aluminum, magnesium and advanced plastics and wherever the need of steel comes in, high strength alloys are used instead because collectively they account for a significant reduction in weight. But with these exclusive materials comes along unaffordable costs and hence less implementation is there.
For the time being, since no alternatives are there for materials, Nissan has adopted the route of reducing the number of parts in a car. In the upcoming Nissan Versa, 20 % fewer parts and components are there and the company is also planning to offer lighter and less powerful engine with upcoming cars. Taking the example of the Versa yet again, the company has replaced the older 1.8 Liter in-line four cylinder engine by a smaller 1.6 liter one.
All in all the company is doing the right thing by trimming down the weight of their products as it is going to have a good impact over the customers also. The fuel efficiency will be increased with marginal reduction in power that could be neglected and it will eventually help save the exhausting fossil fuels.
Source – [The Detroit Bureau]
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