The is a

station wagon A station wagon (American English, US, also wagon) or estate car (British English, UK, also estate) is an automotive Car body style, body-style variant of a Sedan (automobile), sedan with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo ...

manufactured by

Nissan Motors is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and '' Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house performance tuning ...

from 1997 to 2001. According to Nissan, the name derives from "packaging renaissance for versatile, spacious comfort on wheels." It was produced by Nissan from October 1997 to July 2001, and competed with the

Mitsubishi RVR The Mitsubishi RVR is a range of cars produced by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1991 to 2002 and then from 2010 until present. The first two generations were classified as compact Minivan, multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), and Mitsubi ...

and the

Honda HR-V The Honda HR-V is a subcompact crossover SUV ( B-segment) manufactured and marketed by Honda over three generations. The first generation HR-V, based on the Honda Logo, was marketed from 1999 to 2006 in Europe, Japan and select Asia-Pacific ...

. Powering the 2WD models was the SR20DE engine, The X and G models with a 4WD specification were fitted with the

KA24DE The KA engines were a series of four-stroke inline-four gasoline piston engines manufactured by Nissan, which were offered in 2.0 and 2.4 L. The engines blocks were made of cast-iron, while the cylinder heads were made of aluminum. Despite their ...

engine. The GT Turbo model came with the

SR20DET The SR20DET is a straight-four four-stroke gasoline engine that is part of the SR family of engines from Nissan, produced from 1989 to 2002. It is a turbocharged version of the SR20DE engine. Both the SR20DE and SR20DET engines were replaceme ...

engine and was AWD. In Japan, it was exclusive to '' Nissan Satio Store'' Japanese dealerships.

Nissan Altra

The R'nessa was also equipped with a neodymium magnet 62 kW electric motor and run on

lithium ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy d ...

manufactured by

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and used for testing in California, and had a range of between a charging interval of 5 hours, and a charge-discharge cycle over 1,000 times. The batteries were installed beneath the floor. The Nissan Altra was an

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

produced by

between 1998 and 2002. The Nissan Altra was introduced at the

Los Angeles International Auto Show The Los Angeles Auto Show, also known as the LA Auto Show, is an auto show held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is open to the public for ten days, filling of exhibit space. Since 2006 ...

on 29 December 1997. Nissan described the Altra as a combination of a sedan,

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definition ...

, and

minivan Minivan (sometimes called simply a van) is a car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows . The equivalent classification in Europe is MPV (multi-p ...

. It was mainly used as a

fleet vehicle A fleet vehicle is a vehicle owned or leased by a business, government agency, or other organization rather than by an individual or family. Typical examples include vehicles operated by car rental companies, taxicab companies, public utilit ...

for companies such as electric utilities. Only about 200 vehicles were ever produced. It used the bodystyle of the Nissan R'nessa. Technologically, the Altra was significant as being the first production electric vehicle to use a

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...

(li-ion) battery. Nissan called this a third-generation battery (after lead–acid and nickel–metal hydride) and chose li-ion primarily for its power density. It was managed by a passive system, ensuring the batteries never reach charge levels outside their recommended zones. The Altra had a permanent magnet

synchronous motor A synchronous electric motor is an AC electric motor in which, at steady state, the rotation of the shaft is synchronized with the frequency of the supply current; the rotation period is exactly equal to an integer number of AC cycles. Sync ...

, controlled by a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

RISC In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...

computer. It had other more typical features, such as

keyless entry A remote keyless system (RKS), also known as remote keyless entry (RKE) or remote central locking, is an electronic lock that controls access to a building or vehicle by using an electronic remote control (activated by a handheld device or aut ...

power mirrors A power side-view mirror (power side mirror, power wing mirror, or simply power mirror) is a side-view mirror equipped with electrical means for vertical and horizontal adjustment from the inside of the automobile. The glass of a power mirror may ...

and

windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, a 4-wheel

anti-lock braking system An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a Automotive safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...

, and

regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy or potential energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. Typically, regenerativ ...

. According to Nissan, the Altra had a maximum range of . The

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

reported that the 2000 version had an adjusted mileage (miles per equivalent of a gasoline gallon) of the city, and on the highway.

References

{{nissan R'nessa Crossover sport utility vehicles Vehicles with CVT transmission All-wheel-drive vehicles Front-wheel-drive vehicles Electric cars Production electric cars Cars introduced in 1997 2000s cars 1990s cars Cars discontinued in 2001 Station wagons