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So far, the application of LED headlights to the motorcycle has been limited for only high-priced models, because LED light units and the drivers are expensive. In our development, the cost reduction of light source units was examined by implementing multiple medium intensity LEDs. Distributed mounting scheme was created for LEDs placed on the circuit board to meet the heat dissipation requirement without a heat sink, which is usually installed. By new mounting scheme, the requirement of heat dissipation has been successfully fulfilled by only using the copper foil layer. Moreover, by connecting LEDs in series, the driver circuit configuration was made simple while separate circuits are generally required both for a high-beam and a low-beam. By this configuration, the driver cost was reduced. With this circuitry change, some associated issues arose and measures were devised to cope with them.

At Nissan we have developed a new parallel hybrid system for rear-wheel-drive hybrid vehicles. As the main components of the hybrid system, both the motor and the inverter have been developed and are manufactured in house to attain high power density for providing responsive acceleration, a quiet EV drive mode and improved fuel economy. Because the motor is located between the engine and the transmission, it had to be shortened to be within the length allowed for the powertrain. Therefore, new technologies have been developed such as high-density, square-shaped windings and an optimized magnetic circuit specially designed for concentrated winding motors. The inverter is sized to a 12V battery, which it replaces in the engine compartment. Despite its compact size, the inverter must have rather large current capacity to drive a high-power motor. Heat management is critical to the design of a small but high-power inverter.