LEAF is not Nissan’s only green transportation

Solar panels help reduce emissions on Nissan’s newest transport ship

Nissan not only provides zero emission transport for the masses, they also provide reduced emission car carriers to deliver them.

Nissan’s Nichioh Maru, nicknamed RORO (as in Roll On, Roll Off – watch the video and you’ll understand) was just introduced as the first energy efficient transport to shuttle LEAFs and other Nissans from Oppama to the Kobe and Kanda regions of Japan. The addition of the Nichioh Maru, with its capability of carrying up to 1,380 vehicles, will improve Nissan’s home market distribution capabilities. Not only do the solar panels contribute to efficiency, interior lights are LEDs to reduce power consumption and the hull is coated with a low friction coating. The Nichioh Maru is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 4,200 tons annually compared to a conventional car transport ship by not burning diesel fuel to power the ship’s lighting. This is Nissan’s second ship recently introduced to improve vehicle transport efficiency and lower emissions. In December Nissan launched the City of St. Petersburg for service to Northern Europe and Russia from their factories in the United Kingdom and Spain. Lacking the solar panels of the Nichioh Maru, it offers an aerodynamic design with the intent of reducing air resistance by as much as 50 percent. The City of St. Petersburg can accommodate up to 2,000 cars.

It seems to us that Nissan’s environmental commitment is more than just lip service when you look at the resources and time invested in each of these vessels.

On a lighter note, to get a grasp of how big one of these vessels really is, here is a video showing a drive from the lowermost cargo deck to the uppermost cargo deck. The video is just shy of two minutes, and it takes almost that long to complete the drive. Check it out (just do your best to ignore the scrolling ad across the bottom).