Nissan Sylphy ZE Was A China-only Compact Electric Sedan

Nissan Sylphy ZE

This is a Nissan Sylphy ZE, seen in Beijing in 2018, fitted with the green-white New Energy Vehicle (NEV) license plates. The Nissan was brand new, painted in light brown with darkened windows and sporty five-spoke wheels.

The Nissan Sylphy ZE was a China-only electric sedan, based on the petrol-powered seventh-generation Nissan Sylphy/Sentra. The Sylphy ZE was manufactured by the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture from 2018 until 2020.

ZE stands for Zero Emission. The car has Zero Emission lettering on the front doors and on the back, with a blue E in Zero.

It also has blue trim on the headlights, the rear bumper, and on the inside. In China, blue is the color for ‘green’ cars, so many China-made NEVs have blue trim details.

The interior was slightly reworked compared to the petrol version. It has a drive selector instead of the gear lever. But the round space of the lever remained in place, so the drive selector sat somewhat oddly atop a rounded pod.

The Nissan Sylphy ZE was powered by a single electric motor at the front. This was the same motor used in the first-generation Nissan Leaf. The Leaf was not manufactured in China. But Dongfeng-Nissan also marketed another brand called Venucia, which sold a locally-made variant of the Nissam Leaf called the Venucia e30.

The motor had a rated output of 109 hp and 254 Nm. The top speed was 144 km/h and 0-100 took 11.2 seconds. Electricity was stored in a 38 kWh battery. Energy consumption was 13.8 kWh/100 km and NEDC range was 338 kilometers.

From the early 2010s until the late 2010s all China-made EVs had this government-mandated and government-supplied EV badge with the words: 电动汽车, ‘electric car’.

The Nissan Sylphy ZE was more of a compliance vehicle than a serious mass-market electric car. It was sold for only 3 years and it didn’t find many buyers. Price didn’t help: in 2018, the Sylphy ZE cost 243.000 yuan.

Characters: 东风日产, Dongfeng-Nissan.

Like elsewhere in the world, Nissan completely missed out on the EV boom in China. Only this year did Nissan finally launch its first dedicated EV on the Chinese car market; the Ariya, made again by the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture. Things might have turned out differently if Nissan had done more to push the Sylphy ZE back in 2018.

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