It’s true, Nissan took the wildest, coolest virtual concept from just over a year ago and built a real version of it. It’s the Max-Out roadster concept, and it looks as striking, if not more so, in the physical world.
It’s nearly identical, maintaining its retrofuturistic illuminated grid patterns and wedge-y shape. The wheel covers have adopted the grid look, too, but in a round form that suggests tunnels extending from the wheels into the car. There isn’t much that ties the car to modern Nissan designs except the slatted headlights buried in the rectangular air intake. That intake vents out the hood, presumably for aerodynamic purposes. Interestingly, the car is shown with left-hand drive.
With the virtual introduction, Nissan said the Max-Out would be lightweight and all-wheel-drive. It would seem likely that any production model would use versions of the motors and batteries used in the Ariya, as that technology was brought up for the other virtual concepts.
So what does it mean that Nissan has built a physical version of the Max-Out? Well, it’s hard to say. The car is being shown during a Nissan press conference called Nissan Futures that will cover Nissan’s green technology and feature panel discussions. It seems like it’s mostly a fun display for the event. And it’s entirely possible that they just wanted to pick the flashiest of the designs.
Our blindly optimistic sides would like to think that there’s buzz about the car and Nissan is wanting to get public opinion to build a case for it. Plus, the design was featured as an idea of what Nissan could create for its big electric plans. But we know that sports cars are a tough segment, and we also haven’t forgotten being let down by the Nissan IDx. So that seems a bit unlikely. If any Nissan executives are reading, though, we’d like to state clearly that we want the funky electric sports car.
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