Nissan Revolutionises Small Car Technology With New Nissan Note

ROLLE, Switzerland, February 19, 2013; Nissan is set to revolutionise the small car segment and once again prove its credentials as a technological trailblazer with its newest innovation - the Nissan Safety Shield.

Nissan's commitment to innovation, style and excitement has produced some of the most talked-about cars in recent years. And now, following in the tracks of the ground-breaking Qashqai and Juke, the new Note sets the standard for advanced, relevant technology in an affordable small car package.  The Note features intelligent, relevant features useful in day to day driving, allowing drivers to feel safer and more secure at all times.

With cities across Europe continuing to battle with congestion and road traffic accidents claiming around 34,000 lives each year and leaving more than 1.1 million people injured*, Nissan has committed itself to making safety technologies more accessible - Nissan Safety Shield plays a key part in this process. This new technology will be making its global segment debut on the Nissan Note to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on 5^th March 2013 and will be in showrooms from the autumn.

The all-new Nissan Note brings together the high-end technology usually found in premium, luxury models to the small car sector for the first time, setting new standards for affordability and continuing a proud tradition of revolutionising the various sectors that Nissan's vehicles come under - from the all-electric LEAF all the way to the mighty GT-R supercar.

The Nissan Safety Shield is made up of three advanced safety systems - Blind Spot Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Moving Object Detection - and, combined with Nissan's Around View Mirror,  provides optimum protection not only for the car's occupants, but crucially for those outside of the car.  With these systems working together, the Nissan Safety Shield can alert drivers to objects moving behind the car (for example, a child walking towards you when reversing); indicate when a vehicle is in the driver's blind spot so the driver can take avoiding action and can detect when a car is drifting out of its lane.

Etienne Henry, Vice-President for Nissan Strategy & Product Planning in Europe commented: "The all-new Note presented our engineers with a fascinating challenge, in that we wanted to incorporate a huge amount of advanced technology but keep costs reasonable. In developing the three Safety Shield elements to run from one camera we were able to keep manufacturing costs under tight control and make this technology package accessible to the small car segment for the first time."