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Nissan Sentra CA & Extroid CVT Honored by Popular Science

10 November 2000

Nissan Sentra CA & Extroid CVT Honored by Popular Science

       Super Clean Car and Beltless Continuously Variable Transmission
                   Named to 2000 'Best of What's New' List

    NEW YORK, Nov. 9 The Nissan Sentra CA sedan and the Nissan
Extroid Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) today received "Best of
What's New" awards in automobile technology from Popular Science magazine.
    Popular Science has presented the "Best of What's New" awards for
13 years.  Previously, Nissan won awards for the Nissan Xterra sport-utility
vehicle, the lithium-ion battery used in the Altra EV and the Infiniti
full-active suspension.
    The 2000 "Best of What's New" awards were presented today in an awards
luncheon at Tavern on the Green in New York's Central Park.
    This year, Nissan was a double winner with the Sentra CA, the cleanest
gasoline-burning vehicle in the world, and the Extroid CVT, the first
production CVT capable of handling high output engines.

    Sentra CA
    The Nissan Sentra CA is based on the 2000 model Sentra GXE and comes
well-equipped with a 1.8-liter, 122-horsepower, four-cylinder engine,
comfortable seating for four adults and fuel economy rated at 26 mpg in the
city and 33 mpg on the highway.
    The Sentra CA is the only gasoline-burning car to qualify for partial zero
emission vehicle credits under standards set by the California Air Resources
Board.  The car meets CARB requirements as a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle
(SULEV) and has zero evaporative emissions.
    Technologies contributing to those industry-leading levels include a
shortened catalyst light-off time, a reduction in engine-out emissions through
the use of an electrically controlled swirl control valve, newly developed
material for fuel and vapor lines and a newly developed activated carbon which
improves trap and desorption efficiency.
    To work in its cleanest state, the Sentra CA requires low-sulfur fuel.
The car is on sale now in California, the only state that requires low-sulfur
fuel at the pump.

    Extroid CVT
    The Nissan Extroid CVT is currently available on the Nissan Cedric large
sedan in the Japanese domestic market.  The beltless CVT is capable of
handling high output from 3-liter engines with more than 200 horsepower and
286 foot-pounds of torque.
    The Extroid CVT uses two sets of discs and power rollers to transmit power
from the engine to the drive wheels.  Belts used in conventional CVTs
typically are not capable of handling high output from larger V-6 engines.
    Compared with conventional automatic transmissions, the Extroid CVT boasts
a 10 percent improvement in fuel economy and eliminates power loss during
shifting since it continuously varies gear ratios.