35 years ago Nissan started producing cars in Sunderland, England. That should be celebrated, and Nissan is doing that in the United Kingdom with an electric Nissan Bluebird. Newbird, it’s called.
The electric Bluebird does not just appear out of the blue, because the Bluebird of this generation was the first car to be built in the English Nissan factory in 1986. The electric Leaf has been off the production line here since 2012, from which the ‘Newbird’ naturally borrows its powertrain.
The Bluebird in question, a beautiful liftback, was allocated a 40 kWh battery pack. Half of the batteries are in the once so practical luggage compartment, the other half under the hood. According to the makers, this results in an excellent weight distribution. Suspension and damping are fortunately adapted to handle the extra kilos.
In the front we also find the electric motor, which if coming from a 40 kWh leaf should be about 150 hp strong. That should be more than enough for a Bluebird, but Nissan still speaks of a 0-100 time of an unimpressive 15 seconds. The driving range is estimated at 130 miles, or 209 kilometers.
Charging is done via the on-board charger with a maximum of 6.6 kW. The loading opening is neatly hidden behind the fuel flap, the only correct place in our opinion. Apart from the color scheme and the type plate, the appearance remained intact, although we also note an illuminated logo on the hood. In the interior, too, everything remained the same where possible.
Of course, as far as the Newbird is concerned, it remains with this one copy. However, the Sunderland plant has a glorious future ahead of it. Nissan is building more and more (batteries for) electric cars here, including a completely new crossover based on the CMF-EV base on which the Ariya is also built.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl