The Nissan Leaf has received many awards for its environment friendly approach and futuristic technology. But making it into records at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was something we didn’t expect from this tiny little EV. Nissan found an innovative way of making it possible –by simply driving the Leaf up the 1 mile hillclimb course in reverse!
Professional stunt driver Terry Grant covered the course in 1m 37.02 seconds at an average speed of 88.5kph. Interestingly, on the last day Terry once again drove the Leaf uphill and shaved amazing 26 seconds from his earlier timing. The reason Leaf could manage such a feat is because it has an electric motor with direct drive connected to its wheels – it basically lets the car achieve same speed in reverse as in forward direction.
This is not the first time that Nissan has pulled-off a unique trick at the Goodwood festival; last year Terry Grant drove the Nissan Juke on two-wheels at the same event. These records are part of Nissan campaign called ‘The Big Turn On’ that aims to publicise Nissan’s attempt to get more people in electric vehicles.
Nissan Motors’s Indian arm is in talks with its Indian distribution partner Hover Automotive, to a buy minority stake here for an undisclosed sum. This won’t bring any major changes in Nissan India’s operations, but will give the Japanese car maker some additional control in sales, service and related activities in India.
