Vintage Nissan Sunny electric pickup hauls with Leaf power

Nissan does not make an electrical pickup truck, however a South Carolina tuner will have simply created the following very best factor—for Nissan itself to turn.

Tommy Pike Customs (TPC) took a 1987 Nissan Sunny Truck and gave it a Nissan Leaf powertrain transplant. The finished truck will probably be displayed at Nissan’s sales space on the 2022 SEMA display, the yearly car aftermarket industry display in Las Vegas.

The powertrain conversion features a 40-kwh battery pack and an electrical motor generating 147 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque. That provides it about two times the horsepower and greater than thrice the torque of the fuel inline-4 engine the Sunny left the manufacturing unit with, Nissan famous in a press free up.

The motor is attached to the inventory guide transmission. That is a not unusual carryover in EV conversions, for simplicity’s sake—and the motive force will most probably by no means want to shift or consider the left pedal.

The Sunny Truck used to be by no means offered in the US, despite the fact that comparable passenger-car frame kinds have been offered right here with Datsun 1200 badging. This truck, which keeps inventory right-hand force, certified for importation as a result of it is conveniently previous the 25-year restrict that exempts antique vehicles from maximum U.S. rules.

Along with the electrical conversion, the remainder of the truck used to be remodeled with a variety of references to Nissan’s heritage. It wears a frame equipment impressed by means of the “Hakosuka” Nissan Skyline GT-R of the Nineteen Sixties, with a livery in line with the only utilized by Brock Racing Enterprises on its Datsun 240Z and Datsun 510 race vehicles.

Different changes come with uprated suspension, combining the setup from an S13-generation Nissan 240SX up entrance with heavy-duty leaf springs within the rear, plus fashionable 17-inch wheels and tires.

This is not the primary Leaf-based pickup. Engineers at Nissan’s Arizona proving floor transformed a first-generation Leaf into a primary Nissan electrical pickup truck to haul portions across the facility 8 years in the past. Combining the entrance finish of a Leaf with the mattress of a Nissan Frontier, it wasn’t relatively as handsome as this effort.

Whilst only a display car, the electrical Sunny Truck hints at some attention-grabbing chances. Experiences that Nissan is thinking about a compact electrical pickup were circulating since remaining yr, when any such car used to be doubtlessly previewed by means of the Max-Out idea, one in all a number of ideas teasing Nissan’s objective of 15 EVs by means of 2030, globally. In the meantime, a possible electric-truck-focused partnership between Nissan and Detroit EV startup Hercules by no means perceived to cross anyplace.

Any Nissan electrical truck could be most probably constructed within the U.S. At the present, Nissan and its Infiniti luxurious department plan U.S.-built EVs at Canton, Mississippi, beginning in 2025. Thus far, Nissan has assembled U.S.-market Leaf hatchbacks in Tennessee; the Mississippi manufacturing unit lately builds the fuel Frontier and Titan pickups, in addition to the Altima sedan.