Nissan Altra EV Sales Figures

Nissan Altra EV

The Altra EV was Nissan’s first Battery Electric Vehicle, produced from 1998 until 2002. Only 320 units were built, they were mainly used by utility companies and other fleet owners who wanted to test the first batch of electric vehicles.

Nissan Altra EV Overview

The Nissan Altra EV was an early electric vehicle (EV) introduced by Nissan in the late 1990s. While it wasn’t as widely known or distributed as some later electric vehicles, it played a crucial role in Nissan’s exploration of electric propulsion and its future developments in the EV arena.

While the General Motors EV1 and the Honda EV Plus were launched a year earlier, the Altra EV is the first electric car from a major manufacturer that features a “third generation” battery. The EV1 still had a lead-acid battery and the EV Plus had a “second generation” Nickel–metal hydride battery (NiMH), but the Altra used a lithium-ion (li-ion) that could be charged and discharged more than 1.000 cycles. This type of battery would again be used in the Nissan Leaf, which was launched in 2010. The design of the Altra EV was based on the Nissan R’nessa which was a kind of crossover between a station wagon and an MPV.