During the Frankfurt Auto Show, Renault revealed a 3.0-liter diesel V-6 engine and it also confirmed that this engine will soon make its way to the US auto market under its partnership with Japanese automaker Nissan. This engine and new Nissan parts will be available in the 2010 model year of Nissan Maxima. Other details such as power and torque are not yet known but Nissan said that the engine will be meeting the strict Tier 2 Bin 5 emission standards, and it will be certified for sale in all of the fifty states.

Car and Driver Editor Editor-in-Chief Csaba Csere spoke with Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn during the 2007 Detroit auto show and he asked him about the future plan of the Japanese automaker regarding fuel-efficient cars and Ghosn said that he saw diesels and continuously variable transmissions or CVTs leading the way in efficiency in the near future.

He said, “”Diesel makes more sense in bigger cars than in smaller ones, and diesel is easier to adapt to a wide variety of vehicles than a hybrid is.”

Throughout the month of July this year, Nissan was able to record sales of 3919 units of Altima Hybrids in the U.S. That is already a considerable figure for the Japanese automaker as it is in line with their expectations, considering that the model is only sold in eight states. At this time, there are no plans of expanding the model further.

Their focus as of the moment is the development of Nissan’s own in-house hybrid technology that have Nissan parts that will contribute to its vehicles’ environmental efficiency , with a vehicle for sale by 2010 in Japan and U.S. Also, they continue to work on a plug-in hybrid.

Nissan’s hybrid technology is but one element of Nissan’s broader plan to redefine their take on new environmental, safety, and performance technologies in coming years. The Green Program 2010 is Nissan’s larger blueprint to make its vehicles, their Nissan parts, and plants more environment-friendly through a quite a number of measures like diesel and direct-injection gasoline engines, including turbocharged four cylinders come April of 2010.

There are plans to launch an electric car in Japan early in the next decade, and the field testing will begin and be conducted throughout the fiscal year of 2010. Aside from the peek at the soon-to-be diesel vehicle, Nissan also presented its Mixim model, their electric car model, during the Frankfurt Motor Show. The tiny, funky three-door hatchback uses lithium-ion batteries to power twin motors for all-wheel drive. Also due in the 2010 timeframe is a fuel-cell vehicle with a stack developed in-house.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 3:39 am and is filed under Nissan Maxima, nissan news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.