Nissan’s new Carwings service promotes eco-driving

Nissan has announced it will introduce a new CARWINGS service to promote eco-driving or more fuel-economical driving habits amongst Japanese motorists.

The service has been specifically designed to educate and raise awareness amongst drivers on the impact of day-to-day driving habits on their vehicle’s fuel consumption average. The new CARWINGS service is part of Nissan’s holistic efforts to reduce CO2 emissions as announced under the Nissan Green Program 2010. CARWINGS is Nissan’s original telematics service that is currently available only in Japan.

The new service will assist drivers to become more conscious of their vehicle’s fuel-efficiency performance by providing them with the average fuel-consumption data according to their day-to-day driving habits, and allows the driver to track and monitor improvements to their eco-driving skills over a period of time.

The system can calculate the average fuel efficiency performance of each vehicle equipped with CARWINGS through data sent directly to the CARWINGS Center, where the data can be retrieved on the member’s personalised webpage.

It is designed to challenge the driver to improve on their eco-driving skills through a monthly fuel-efficiency ranking. Reminding the driver to drive in a more environment-friendly manner the system provides information on their past monthly averages, as well as weekly performance indicators.

1. Eco-drive rankings

CARWINGS members gain category rankings based on their average fuel efficiency in the previous month. Their average score can be compared with the average of other CARWINGS members of the same vehicle model, in an easy-to-understand graph.

2. Indicators on eco-driving

The Website indicates fuel efficiency for the previous week compared with the average from the previous month, with weekly tips on how to achieve higher efficiency.

3. Fuel efficiency record

A graph maps distance travelled against fuel consumption over the previous 30 days to help members to improve fuel efficiency.

This new eco-driving service is included in the CARWINGS package. The CARWINGS system incorporates a user-friendly interface combined with web-enabled technology. It is designed to collect various driving data from customers’ vehicles and process it into value-add information that is both relevant and beneficial to customers.?Nissan defines this concept as the WEB 2.0 application for vehicles.

Under the Nissan Green Program 2010, Nissan will offer technology and products to help make real reductions in CO2 emissions. The company is actively engaged in joint efforts with other partners, including the ITS project in Kanagawa Prefecture and various driver education programmes as part of its commitment to reduce CO2 as a company-wide effort.