Nissan has expanded its Michigan-based Nissan North America Technical Center (NTCNA) with a more than $40 million safety promotion lab for vehicle safety testing. The new lab offers more efficiency in the vehicle development process and advances Nissan's goal of a future with near-zero accident fatalities.
"This expansion underscores Nissan's commitment to the region and allows us to be a global center of excellence for new vehicle testing," said Chris Reed, senior vice president of Research and Development for Nissan Americas. "The goal of near-zero fatalities always guides our work. The combination of this new lab and passive and active safety technologies can help us reach that goal."
The expansion of the Safety Promotion Laboratory provides Nissan with the ability to conduct full vehicle crash testing, vehicle certification, advanced development testing and benchmarking. Engineers can conduct 48 different passive safety crash test simulations, working efficiently in terms of timing and analysis of results. The 10-acre-plus facility is equipped with state-of-the-art high-speed photographic systems, data collection systems and a precise vehicle towing system. In addition, the site has a dummy calibration lab for testing, a vehicle preparation area and a pedestrian safety lab.
When it comes to electric cars, the new Safety Promotion Laboratory is equipped to assess the integrity of EVs' high-voltage batteries, drawing on over a decade of best practice and pioneering experience in electric mobility since the launch of the first generation LEAF.
"Here at the Safety Promotion Laboratory, we focus on passive safety," explains Mike Bristol, director, NTCNA's Mechanical Vehicle Safety Testing. "Our vehicles are equipped with technology to prevent accidents, but in the event of a crash, we focus on protecting occupants from injury and evaluating the performance of the vehicle's structure, the performance of airbags, seat belts and other mechanisms that help protect occupants."
About Nissan North America Technical Center
The Nissan Technical Center North America (NTCNA) currently serves as the primary facility for Nissan Motor Company's Research and Development in the Americas, with more than 1,200 employees. Nissan has been committed to research and development in Michigan for over 30 years.
NTCNA is currently developing Nissan and INFINITI vehicles in the U.S. market, including the Altima, Frontier, LEAF, LEAF, Rogue, Sentra, Maxima, Pathfinder, Murano, TITAN, Versa and QX60. The Michigan-based team tested and validated systems such as Nissan ProPILOT Assist and Nissan LEAF e-Pedal .
This expansion, totaling more than $40 million, brings Nissan's total investment in Farmington Hills to more than $310 million since opening in 1991.
