Nissan hybrid system to go into RWD Infinitis first
For their first production hybrid vehicle, the Altima, Nissan licensed Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive. At the same time, Nissan announced that they would be developing their own in-house system for introduction in 2010. Several months back rumors surfaced that the system would be used in luxury Infiniti models in addition to Nissans. It now turns out that Nissan executive vice president Mitsuhiko Yamashita told Reuters last month in Detroit that the hybrid system would indeed be used by Infiniti. In fact, it will primarily be used by the premium brand. The approach echoes what General Motors is doing by applying hybrid technology to their thirstier rear wheel drive cars where the actual number of gallons of fuel saved would be greater than in a smaller, inherently more efficient car. Given Toyota's limited success selling Lexus hybrids, it will be interesting to see how Infiniti does. It will also be interesting to see how the hybrid compares to Nissan's new diesel coming in the new Maxima.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 10:08AM (2/17/2008)
Installing a hybrid drivetrain in a heavy RWD sedan does yield a greater absolute improvement in fuel economy, but only if that sedan actually spends much of its life in stop-and-go traffic. That may be the case in Japan and Los Angeles, where there is virtually no other type of traffic.
Elsewhere, such sedans are the preferred way to spool off a lot of miles at constant freeway speeds, at which a hybrid system typically yields little or no improvement.
The real reason Nissan made this decision is that hybrid drivetrain are seriously expensive and US customers notoriously sensitive to sticker shock. Unless you're Toyota and can afford to produce a hybrid-only (marketing) vehicle in high volume, the easiest route is to use an expensive premium vehicle as the base - that way, the hybrid markup is lower in relative terms, so it's easier to still achieve an adequate profit margin.
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s10 11:32AM (2/17/2008)
The real reason Nissan and GM are making this decision is that they don't want the consumers to move from the bigger and more profitable cars to the smaller and less profitable cars.
Production costs of a small eco car or a big full optional car are very similar.. but the selling prices are, of course, not.
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MikeW 2:39PM (2/17/2008)
It depends on what 'hybrid' system Nissan plans on using.
Maybe they will be a licensee of the dual mode that GM/Chrysler/MB/BMW are using.
That would improve highway mileage over the WAY too shortly geared 5 speed automatic in the G35. Isn't the maximum overdrive ratio 0.5:1 in EVT2, much better than 0.839:1 of the JATCO.
Top gear is less than 30mph/1000rpm.
Honda has this tall geared thing down. Look at the 2000 Acura TL, 3.2 liter engine, top gear 35mph / 1K rev.
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eddy 4:02PM (2/17/2008)
we just don't know what type of hybrid this will be. Combined, serial or parallel ?
@rgseidel
A real series hybrid could even bring advantages on the highway: The trick would be an small front-mounted combustion engine as generator, which runs on its optimal specs, and an small electrical engine mounted as rear or middle-motor for propulsion. A concept like that would always run with maximum efficiency of the combustion engine (which can be quite high for an optimized single-revolution.speed-engine).
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GoodCheer 7:14PM (2/17/2008)
To be fair, any kind of real (strong?) hybrid should improge mileage on the highway by allowing the use of smaller ICEs. In point of fact, for vehicles of equavalent specs (ICE and total power), a parallel should be more efficient on the highway because it can use the power of the ICE directly, rather than having to covert it into electicity and back.
To illustrate, the Toyota "Hybrid Synergy Drive" is poorly optimized for highway use, yet the Prius gets dramatically better mileage, even on the highway, than anything of similar size.
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jake 7:33PM (2/17/2008)
I would say it's probably going to be the parallel hybrid as it's just cheaper and easier to make than the series one as you don't need as big an electric motor/generator and you probably don't need as big/powerful a battery.
The good thing about series is that it doesn't matter if it's RWD b/c you can stick the motor in the back of the car. You just need some clever arrangement for the batteries so it doesn't take up all your trunk space. It would surprise me if it's series as I don't see any automaker going with series except maybe the Volt in development.
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Kai 4:43PM (4/30/2008)
They just don't get do they? The idea is that a Hybrid is supposed to extend a vehicles mpg so that the h-system + matching power plant boosts mpg enough to meet or surpass the future target of 35mpg...which, all things considered is really lame - should be at least 40 by now. Jeesh....
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