Nissan transforms its X-Trail soft-roader into a truly go-anywhere mountain rescue mobile.
When the Nissan X-Trail first burst onto the scenes back in the early 2000s, one of the key highlights of that initial iteration was its All-Mode 4×4 system. And while this once boxy soft-roader has since gained a more curvaceous figure in the intervening two decades, the Japanese automaker however is still to be very proud of its e-4ORCE four-wheel drive tech in this latest fourth generation crossover — which it claims to be capable of react to changing levels of grip in 1/10,000th of a second, or approximately 1000 times quicker than a traditional all-wheel drive system.
Though when it comes to tackling the snowy ski slopes of Europe in winter, even Nissan’s apparently amazing off-road tech requires a little bit of help in dealing with the extremely slippery pistes. Such is therefore when converting this soft-roader into the X-Trail Mountain Rescue concept, the Japanese automaker has had to slightly tweak its four-wheel drive system into becoming four-track-drive instead.
Aside from the tank tracks as well, the X-Trail Mountain Rescue concept further features a bespoke roof rack that is capable of carrying an evacuation stretcher and snow shovels, in order for it to better perform its primary task of being the ultimate cold-weather ambulance. Said roof rack also comes with a siren, flashing light bar and lights integrated within it, while the additional lights to be found embedded in its grille too for more illumination when performing missions in the dark.
Hidden in the front bumper on the other hand is a winch, with reinforced tow hooks on either end of this crossover seeing that it will likely never be able to get too stuck for too long while out on the job. And while the vibrantly orange colour scheme might have partially camouflaged the significantly flared wheel arches on this X-Trail Mountain Rescue concept, what is nevertheless hard to miss is the added (23 cm-worth of) ground-clearance from these tank tracks, which now requires the fitment of footboards on its side to facilitate ingress and egress into the vehicle.
Moving on inside now, the Nissan X-Trail Mountain Rescue concept adds an auxiliary Garmin GPS on top of its standard twin-screen display, in addition to a comprehensive array of communications equipment from Motorola The bigger changes within occurs out back though, as the two rear rows of seats have been removed to allow the installation of a stretcher and a jump-seat for a medical professional.
As to how this particular concept came about meanwhile, the X-Trail Mountain Rescue was developed as part of Nissan’s support in a campaign by five European ski resorts under the banner of “Ride Responsibly”, with the X-Trail Mountain Rescue set to be displayed in a glass box at the popular Italian ski resort of Cervinia.
The ‘Ride Responsibly’ campaign promotes courteous slope etiquette with the placement of digital signs which encourage snow riders to slow down where different slopes meet to reduce the risk of collision. Similar to road-side signs that display a vehicle’s speed, the signs will monitor the speed of approaching riders and show “Thank You” for those who are approaching at a considerate speed, or “Slow Down” if their speed is judged as excessive.
