Renowned Japanese automaker Nissan is proud to announce that by 2010, it would have come up with a hybrid model of its own. The Japanese automaker’s goal for releasing a hybrid model is to provide vehicles with better acceleration but under a better fuel economy than what most hybrid vehicles offer nowadays. This information is according to he Nissan Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Mitsuhiko Yamashita.

Considering the lot of automakers offering hybrid vehicles today, Nissan is actually a late-comer when it comes to hybrid offerings. The Japanese automaker only started offering its hybrid last year, in 2007, in the form of its Nissan Altima Hybrid which makes use of the hybrid technology of Toyota Motor Corporation.

However, Yamashita assured that by 2010, Nissan Motor Corporation will be launching new hybrid models that will be equipped with its own hybrid technology. The Japanese automaker has not yet disclosed which of its model will be equipped with its own hybrid system but Yamashita did say that it will be a rear-wheel drive vehicle.

According to Yamashita, the hybrid system that Nissan will be offering will make use of more electric power in order to decrease the dependence on driving using a gas engine. While Toyota has been successful in launching and marketing its famous hybrid model, Toyota Prius, Yamashita believes that the competition is still far from being over. He said, This is just starting. We still don’t know who will be the winner eventually.”

Even though Toyota is already starting to promote the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles and General motors as well, Yamashita said that he doubts the technology of plug-in hybrids. He said that plug-ins require a lot more battery capacity which is the most expensive part of the hybrid system. He said, “Putting a more expensive battery on top of the battery … that’s not a good solution.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 8:17 pm and is filed under 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.