Nissan will launch its first in-house hybrid technology under the Infiniti brand by 2010 although the car to receive it has still yet to be decided.
In an interview with Reuters, Nissan’s Executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita said costs justified to implement hybrid solution on the most expensive models. “it’s easier to absorb the cost of the system with more expensive cars.” he said.
Yamashita said Nissan’s hybrid system would not be a good match for smaller cars, at least at the initial stage, because of its high cost. For smaller vehicles, Nissan would lean towards pure electric vehicles that would be driven short distances in cities, he said.
Along the hybrid vehicles, Nissan is also working on introducing clean-diesel cars, for which development is being done by Renault. Yamashita said Nissan will offer the diesel alternative on bigger cars that travel long distances in the United States.
This is a bold move for Nissan at at time when Toyota and Honda focus on slashing the cost of the hybrid system in the next year or two to spread it across mass-market models. Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said earlier he expected its hybrid cars introduced from 2009 to be almost as profitable as its conventional gasoline cars.
Nissan and Mitsubishi have announced that they have agreed to expand their minicar production alliance. Mitsubishi will supply another Kei car to Nissan at the end of this year and both companies are currently studying other opportunities.
