Nissan confirms all-electric Leaf crossover coming to production based on IMx concept

Nissan has long been rumored to be working on a bigger version of the Leaf to produce an all-electric SUV or crossover.

Seven years after releasing the Leaf, Nissan has yet to bring the vehicle to market, but an executive now says that it will come to production based on the IMx concept.

The head of Nissan Design in Europe, Mamoru Aoki, confirmed the news to Autocar this week:

“The IMx is not just a concept car. In a few years, it will appear [in production],”

That’s surprising considering that the IMx concept is quite futuristic-looking and wasn’t expected to be something that would make it to production since Nissan referred to it as a “vision of the future.”

It was unveiled in October last year and Nissan claims that the concept is powered by two “high-output electric motors” at the front and rear, enabling all-wheel-drive. The dual motors have a combined power output of 320 kW and 700 Nm of torque.

Without specifying the capacity, Nissan says that the battery pack is “high-capacity” with “increased energy density” enabling “more than 600 kilometers (372 miles) on a single charge.”

Here are a few images of the vehicle released by Nissan:

Now Aoki has also commented on the vehicle’s interior:

“The interior is notably bigger than with a conventional vehicle and there’s much more usable space, thanks to the totally flat floor allowed by the [underfloor] battery pack. The dashboard is also pushed right back [towards the windscreen] because the HVAC [heating, ventilation and air-con] unit is under the bonnet.”

That’s the interior of the concept that they originally revealed:

Electrek’s Take

There’s no word on when they plan to bring it to market, aside from Aoki’s “next few years” comment.

I wouldn’t hold my breath since a follow-up to the Leaf has been expected since 2014 and nothing has happened yet.

It’s a lot like BMW and the i3 and to further the comparison, this announcement is a lot like BMW’s recent announcement that the i4 electric sedan is coming to production based on iVision Dynamics concept – another futuristic-looking concept that looks nothing like something that would go into production.

Those announcements seem weird to me, but we are talking about vehicles coming 3-4 years out so they might as well look futuristic.