Electric roadsters – we know automakers will build them eventually, but they don’t make much business sense in the early days of electric cars. So, outside of the original Tesla Roadster, they’ve largely been relegated to sketches and promises.
Nissan, however, has built one.
Just a Design Study
Don’t get too excited – the Nissan Max-Out Concept is just a concept car. That means it’s a design study meant to show what a theoretical future product could look like. Many, if not most, concept cars never see production.
But we didn’t expect to see the Max-Out get this far, so we rule nothing out.
Nissan first “revealed” the Max-Out in late 2021 as a digital rendering. It was one of four all-CGI cars the company showed off when it outlined its plans to go electric, promising 23 electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030.
All four seemed fanciful, though we thought one might reappear someday in toned-down form as a replacement for the Nissan Leaf EV.
It wasn’t this one. Yet here the Max-Out is, a flesh-and-blood…er…metal and electrons car.
The Tron Miata, By Nissan
It looks like a fever dream from the makers of 1982’s “Tron.” Its lines are 1980s-meets-2023. In profile, a gentle arc terminates in sharp angles at the front and the rear – a wedge that could almost be a 2023 Lancia Stratos convertible.
From head-on, the front fascia’s deep scoop makes it look like you could pick it up and vacuum the seats of your existing car with it.
But it’s all laced through with lines of bright color – hence the “Tron” reference – including some 1980’s style laser-look grids. The design comes straight from an Olan Mills school photoshoot backdrop, and if that reference went over your head, congratulations, and enjoy your knees while they work.
Inside, Nissan nixed the staggered seating arrangement of the virtual prototype. But they kept the odd seats, with headrests that seem to float over the seatbacks and match their curves. The passenger’s seat folds flat to create a cargo space (who knew Nissan designers had owned Miatas).
A yoke takes the place of the steering wheel. There must be a law someplace that requires this of concept cars.
All-Wheel-Drive, Perhaps 300 Horsepower
Nissan says the running gear is something we’ve seen before. It uses a version of the Advanced e-40RCE electric drivetrain Nissan uses in the 2023 Ariya. It puts out 335 or 389 horsepower in that car, depending on trim level. But we doubt the Max-Out would have as much power.
Power is partly dependent on battery size in EVs. The Max-Out, as a small roadster, would have to use a smaller battery than the Ariya, a midsize SUV.
Electric Roadsters Will Come Later
That’s the heart of the reason no one outside Tesla has yet built an electric droptop 2-seater for sale. The instant acceleration that characterizes EV driving would seem like a natural fit for a roadster’s proportions. But, before automakers can mainstream EVs of all types, they need to make building EV batteries cost-effective.
That means economies of scale. Americans buy a lot of midsize SUVs and pickup trucks. We don’t buy a lot of little convertibles. So, most of the first generation of widely available EVs are midsize SUVs or pickups. When sales of those pay for all the research and development to design efficient EVs and all of the factory equipment to build them, automakers will branch out to other vehicle types.
Since roadsters are so lightweight to begin with, they could get by with smaller and lighter batteries. The electric roadster will make sense, eventually. But only after the electric family hauler and the electric work truck have blazed the trail.
