Nissan revealed one of their concept cars to be shown at this year’s Paris Motor Show, called the TeRRA. It’s a SUV concept, and as you can see from the pictures, it’s a rather tragic-looking thing. Looks are not important with this car though. It is the TeRRA’s fuel cell powertrain, featuring with three electric motors for four-wheel drive, that matters.
This is an exercise for Nissan engineers to see how they can move the SUV into a zero-emissions era. They chose fuel cell technology, because normal plug-in electric solutions just don’t cut it for a SUV. They might work, sort of, for a car like LEAF, but a big heavy SUV either needs monster batteries, or its own onboard power station. Fuel cells provide it with the latter.
The TeRRA is of course a 4×4. The front wheels in this car are powered by the same system used in the Nissan LEAF. Each of the back wheels though have an in-wheel electric motor, based on the working prototypes featured in three successive PIVO concept. Under the hood you find Nissan’s hydrogen fuel cell stack: a flat, highly compact unit that features world-leading power density of 2.5kW/L.
Nissan says the system costs now one-sixth of what it did back in 2005. So it’s fair to say that over the next five years the cost of making a fuel cell car will be the same as a normal petrol or diesel car.
As for the design, well, Nissan says the TeRRA follows the footsteps of the Qashqai and Juke, which kinda explains why it looks so awful! It is kinda rugged and tough though, and the suicide doors is a good idea for better convenience. But this is really one of those concept cars you hope never gets made.
