Nissan could follow Toyota's lead and give high end hybrids to Infiniti
Nissan took a shortcut to hybrid technology by licensing Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive for the Altima Hybrid. But that's not the end game for Nissan. They are currently developing their own in-house system that should debut around the end of the decade. Toyota has probably been able to recover a lot of their hybrid development costs by applying it to many platforms. They likely also are able to offer it for a lower cost on vehicles like the Prius and Camry by padding the price on high end Lexus vehicles. Nissan looks set to follow a similar strategy with Infiniti after their own system is available. This would allow Infiniti to continue offering higher-performance vehicles while cutting emissions and fuel consumption relative to similarly-powered gas-only versions. If they do offer hybrid Infiniti models it will be interesting to see how they compare to the upcoming diesels.
[Source: MotorAuthority]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GoodCheer 9:20AM (10/30/2007)
Toyota also got to put licensing fees towards the repayment of hybrid development costs. Not only Nissan, but I think the Ford Escape uses a Toyota system. Now that there are so many options around, I doubt other companies will have that as a revenue stream.
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