Nissan to Add Fuel-Efficiency Meters to all Future Models

TOKYO, August 21 -- Nissan Motor Co. announced today that it will phase in fuel-efficiency meters on all new models to promote awareness of more economical driving habits. The move is part of the company's overall efforts to launch a wide range of environmental technologies under its mid-term environmental action plan: Nissan Green Program 2010. This new feature will also be introduced on existing models to coincide with the timing of minor model changes(1).

Showing instant fuel-efficiency and average efficiency, the meters help make drivers more conscious of fuel-efficiency and the direct consequences that their driving styles have on a vehicles fuel-economy. In Nissan conducted in-house tests, the introduction of these meters lead to a fuel economy improvement of approximately 10%(2).

Until now, Nissan has offered navigation systems which show both instant and average fuel-efficiency. By placing these meters in the main instrument cluster, the company hopes to improve the effectiveness of these simple devices to raise driver awareness on eco-driving habits.

Under the Nissan Green Program 2010, the company added a new feature to its CARWINGS information service to support greener driving habits(3) in January.

(1) Currently on the SKYLINE, LAFESTA, ATLAS in Japan, and ALTIMA, INFINITI G35 in the U.S

(2) Average of results obtained through in-house observations; figures vary by driving style.

(3) Services include listing the average fuel-efficiency of CARWINGS members on the CARWINGS Website in the form of monthly rankings, and weekly Web advice about green driving techniques