Nissan Pivo concept: electrically powered
Nissan, which has until now stayed aloof from the whole hybrid car business, has been forced by customer pressure and increasingly strict emissions legislation to jump on the bandwagon.
In its "Green Programme 2010" initiative, which it announced earlier this week, the company said it'll develop powertrains that support the development of a so-called “three-litre car” -- a car that will travel 100 kilometres using three litres of petrol, about 80mpg. The company reckons it can do this by 2010.
How will it do that? Nissan said it'll "invest substantially in all aspects of electric vehicle technology", leading with the development of a hybrid
vehicle with a 2010 launch target. In 2007, Nissan is to introduce its first hybrid car – the US market Altima sedan – which uses a hybrid system developed by Toyota.
Yet only just over a year ago, Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said that customers demand for hybrid cars was “anecdotal” and that he wasn't convinced people consumers actually wanted them as opposed to other types of more fuel-efficient cars.
Legislation is a primary driver. California's laws require carmakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, and it's already sued six major carmakers over their products' emissions.
Meanwhile Japan is about to bring in the strictest fuel efficiency rules in the world. They mandate carmakers to cut consumption by 20 per cent from 2005 levels by 2016.
Demand for these things -- which are fuel-efficient only at the point of use, not when it comes to the supply and manufacturing chain, according to at least one report -- is coming from the USA, where fuel efficiency is all the rage.
And Nissan still has some catching up to do in this department. Let's hope it doesn't distract the company from building on some of the great sports cars it's made over the years.
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