THE ELECTRIC OPEN-TOP CAR NISSAN PRODUCED IN THE 90S

The Nissan Leaf and Ariya are capable electric cars, proving that EVs don't have to be prohibitively expensive for those trying to keep their car payments nice and low. But, even the Leaf, whose first generation debuted way back in 2013, wasn't the automaker's first electric car. The company has actually been producing EVs since 1947, with the release of the Tama Electric Vehicle, a battery-powered taxi, and the 1990s saw the launch of the Prairie Joy EV, and the electric Nissan President.

You've probably seen a Nissan President at some point in your life. If you've driven an Infiniti Q45, you've driven a short-wheelbase third-gen President. But we can just about guarantee you've never seen the all-electric Nissan President, at least not in person, unless you were living in Japan in the 1990s and you never missed a parade. The topless electric President was a complete one-off, not for sale, and reserved only for special occasions.

Why The Nissan President?

By the early 1990s, the Nissan President was going on its third generation, launching in 1989 for the 1990 model year. The President was a flagship of the Nissan line, and was sold exclusively at Nissan Store and Nissan Blue Stage dealerships. In Japan, the car was marketed as an executive limousine, with limited export helping to the car to maintain its distinctly Japanese identity.

The Nissan President wasn't just another luxury sedan, this was more like a company car you could use to impress new clients when you pick them up at the airport, or a luxury limo custom-built to show movie stars and athletes around Tokyo. Nissan actually tuned the engine in the President to be less powerful, because the sporty sound the naturally aspirated V8 made didn't suit the company's vision of an executive limo. Put simply, the President was a car intended to make a lasting impression and add a touch of class to any occasion. So, when Nissan set about building a one-of-a-kind electric vehicle to lead parades and marathons, there was really no choice but the President.

Converting A Luxury Sedan For A Victory Parade

The electric Nissan President was anything but a performance-oriented track star. Check the acceleration, and you'll see that we don't even have a 0-60 time, because the car couldn't go to sixty miles per hour in the first place, and it took around ten seconds just to get up to 25 mph. For comparison, Usain Bolt has been clocked at 27.78 mph, meaning he could actually catch up to you on foot if you tried to outrun him in this car.

But that's all well and good, because the electric President wasn't intended for use on tracks, or highways, or really anywhere except for long stretches of city streets, where it was loaned out for special occasions like victory parades when a sumo champion scored a big win. This car was intended for slow-and-low cruising while VIPs seated in the back waved to their adoring public. Performance wasn't a concern when Nissan built the topless electric President; it just needed something that was comfortable, attractive, and quiet.

The electric Nissan President's size no doubt had something to do with its less-than-stellar acceleration specs. Naturally, you expect an EV to be heavier than its ICE-powered counterpart, and that's doubly true when we're talking about a five-seat luxury sedan. The car weighs in at a hefty 4,321 lbs (about 140 lbs heavier than the gas car), stretching 205.7 inches in length, 72 inches wide, and 56.1 inches tall, with a 119.3 inch wheelbase. The decision to go all-electric, according to Nissan, came about because of the nature of its use in long parades. It made more sense to go with a quiet battery-powered vehicle that wouldn't be spitting exhaust into the crowd, and which wouldn't burn a ton of fuel as it crept along Takeshita Street.

The Electric President Is The Only Nissan Of Its Type

Tracing the lineage of today's electric Nissans from the President to the Leaf would be a fool's errand. The fact is that they have very little in common besides both being Nissans, and both being electric. The heritage of the modern Nissan EV arguably begins around 2011, when the company was developing the Nissan e-NV200 utility van with a 72-mile range for the Japan Post Service. The electric President is a true one-off in that it wasn't a tease for an eventual production model, it wasn't built to function as a working prototype or a concept car, and none of its technology would go on to power future Nissans.

The electric Nissan President's place in history has more to do with the lineage of sumo parade cars than it has to do with modern electric vehicles. The President is part of a proud tradition in Japan, with the most notable recent example being the Toyota Century Convertible SUV, a full-size hybrid used to transport modern-day champions like Mongolia's Terunofuji, who enjoyed a victory parade following his New Year Grand Sumo Tournament win in 2024. One might argue that Nissan was a trend-setter in bringing a battery-powered car to the parade, inspiring other automakers to go with hybrids.

Commenting on the topless SUV, retired champion and current Japan Sumo Association PR manager Shibatayama Oyakata said "it makes me want to put on my loincloth again," seeing as only current champions are allowed to ride in the back of these cars.

Sources: The Japan News, Nissan Heritage.

2025-01-14T13:43:55Z