Nissan Altima hybrid (new model will use in house hybrid tech)
06-06-05, 10:17 AM
#1
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Nissan Altima hybrid (new model will use in house hybrid tech)
TOKYO - Nissan Motor Co. aims to sell 50,000 Altima hybrids a year in the United States, starting next year with U.S. production of the car.
"That's the number we're looking at," says Tadao Takahashi, Nissan's executive vice president in charge of global manufacturing. "We'd like to catch up" with other automakers.
A hybrid car uses an electric motor and an internal combustion engine. Nissan buys hybrid technology from Toyota Motor Corp. It will export core hybrid components, such as the battery pack, from Japan.
Nissan will build the Altima hybrid either in Smyrna, Tenn., or Canton, Miss. The company will compare each plant's quality and engineering before making a choice, Takahashi said.
The Smyrna plant has an edge in experience: It builds the Frontier pickup, Pathfinder and Xterra SUVs, and Maxima and Altima sedans. Last year the plant built 487,406 units, below its production capacity of 550,000.
The Canton plant is just 2 years old and was plagued last year by problems. It built 267,354 units last year, below its capacity of 400,000 units.
Nissan needs to sell at least 50,000 hybrid Altimas a year to help it meet U.S. standards for corporate average fuel economy, says Takaki Nakanishi, analyst at UBS Warburg (Japan) Ltd.
In the fast-growing U.S. hybrid market, Toyota is far ahead of Honda and Nissan.
Toyota has waiting lists for the Prius, Highlander and RX 400h hybrids. Next year it will start producing 4,000 Camry hybrids a month in Kentucky.
Nissan and Honda Motor Co. will wage a lively battle for second place. This year Honda expects hybrid sales to top 45,000.
http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102516
"That's the number we're looking at," says Tadao Takahashi, Nissan's executive vice president in charge of global manufacturing. "We'd like to catch up" with other automakers.
A hybrid car uses an electric motor and an internal combustion engine. Nissan buys hybrid technology from Toyota Motor Corp. It will export core hybrid components, such as the battery pack, from Japan.
Nissan will build the Altima hybrid either in Smyrna, Tenn., or Canton, Miss. The company will compare each plant's quality and engineering before making a choice, Takahashi said.
The Smyrna plant has an edge in experience: It builds the Frontier pickup, Pathfinder and Xterra SUVs, and Maxima and Altima sedans. Last year the plant built 487,406 units, below its production capacity of 550,000.
The Canton plant is just 2 years old and was plagued last year by problems. It built 267,354 units last year, below its capacity of 400,000 units.
Nissan needs to sell at least 50,000 hybrid Altimas a year to help it meet U.S. standards for corporate average fuel economy, says Takaki Nakanishi, analyst at UBS Warburg (Japan) Ltd.
In the fast-growing U.S. hybrid market, Toyota is far ahead of Honda and Nissan.
Toyota has waiting lists for the Prius, Highlander and RX 400h hybrids. Next year it will start producing 4,000 Camry hybrids a month in Kentucky.
Nissan and Honda Motor Co. will wage a lively battle for second place. This year Honda expects hybrid sales to top 45,000.
http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102516
06-06-05, 10:23 AM
#2
Lexus Fanatic
They'll probably make the 50,000 goal. People will buy anything with the name " hybrid " on it, no matter how good or poor a vehicle it is. There are long waiting lines right now for just about every hybrid available in the U.S. market.....maybe slightly less so for the Honda Insight because of its impracticality.
06-06-05, 10:25 AM
#3
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Sounds like Nissan is finally catching up with the Japanese brand hybrid craze, although I'm not sure if 50K is a feasible figure to reach for next year's Altima sales. Toyota and Honda are definitely leading the competition in the thousands 
06-06-05, 11:49 AM
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I love this. Competition is a beautiful thing, but it's even sweeter when Toyota continuously gets a cut of the action, even when from competitors! This is the right thing to do for Nissan, but as they are getting whatever scraps Toyota has, we will be getting the best and brightest from this awesome company. Mark my words, Toyota WILL be the first to employ fuel cell technology in a mass produced car. Once the price goes down (the few fuel cell buses in Chicago and Vancouver B.C. for expample cost $1.4 million each) I wouldn't be surprised to see the same technology in smaller devices from cameras to cell phones to laptops.
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06-06-05, 12:17 PM
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I highly doubt they'll even come close to 50,000. Even if the demand was there, are there enough batteries to go around now that other manufactorers are getting on the act and using Toyotas technology. Combining Pruis, RX400, Highlander, Toyota is right around 50,000. Accord hybrid don't even sell that well and camry is also getting the hybrid treatment, Altima will have stiff competition.
Personally, I don't think Altima is a good candidate for hybrid and Ghosn knows it, but I understand Nissans reason for choosing it. Altima is Nissans biggest seller and plays a big role in helping raise it's corporate MPG so Nissan can built more profitable highend gas guzzlers without fear of getting tax. The genius of Ghosn's money making ability strikes again, eventho he's just following GMs past strategies when they bought Corollas from Toyota and sold them as GEO Prisms.
Personally, I don't think Altima is a good candidate for hybrid and Ghosn knows it, but I understand Nissans reason for choosing it. Altima is Nissans biggest seller and plays a big role in helping raise it's corporate MPG so Nissan can built more profitable highend gas guzzlers without fear of getting tax. The genius of Ghosn's money making ability strikes again, eventho he's just following GMs past strategies when they bought Corollas from Toyota and sold them as GEO Prisms.
06-06-05, 12:19 PM
#7
Lexus Fanatic
Too bad it's still gonna be a mild hybrid. I hope Toyota sees the bigger picture and starts offering the 2nd-gen hybrid system for licensing rather than just the 1st gen. They should not fear other carmakers using their 2nd-gen technologies because it's all about quickly increasing the sales volume and reducing the costs per unit of the 2nd-gen drivetrain!! Think win-win, Toyota!
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06-06-05, 02:07 PM
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Sounds like 50,000 more Toyotas sold. Its good they are selling the old technology to others. Their own CEO Carlos Ghosen has all but dismissed Hybrids. They figure VQ and low fuel economy is the way of the future.
Imagine that is a selling point "We bought this hybrid technology from the hybrid leader, Toyota". That enough should sell the car.
Give me the Accord or Camry hyrbid instead please. But ANY hybrid is better than none.
Imagine that is a selling point "We bought this hybrid technology from the hybrid leader, Toyota". That enough should sell the car.
Give me the Accord or Camry hyrbid instead please.
But ANY hybrid is better than none.
06-06-05, 03:10 PM
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Nissan can't even get their interiors to hold together for more than 90 days lately ... hell, even with my 2001 Sentra - I've been in the shop twice for a stupid headlight-assembly recall.
I can only imagine the amount of time people are going to spend in the shop when Nissan drops the Altima hybrid ... too early and yet, too late.
M.
I can only imagine the amount of time people are going to spend in the shop when Nissan drops the Altima hybrid ... too early and yet, too late.
M.
06-06-05, 06:38 PM
#11
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Originally Posted by Celicamaro
I highly doubt they'll even come close to 50,000. Even if the demand was there, are there enough batteries to go around now that other manufactorers are getting on the act and using Toyotas technology. .
06-06-05, 07:02 PM
#12
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Originally Posted by jet864
Mark my words, Toyota WILL be the first to employ fuel cell technology in a mass produced car.
http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=102055
06-07-05, 12:41 AM
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I think Toyota just might pull a fast one on Honda in the fuel cell race. They cetainly got some of the most creative and innovative employees I've ever seen. Every year Toyota holds these crazy competition for it's employees. Some of the stuff they build or solutions they came up with are just simply amazing. The weird and sad part is Toyota products are consistantly more conservative than all other automakers. Sitting on this vast amount of ideas and creative people is similar to them sitting a massive pile of cash. Maybe they're just waiting for the right day to unleash this abundance of talents and cash on the consumer.
06-07-05, 03:37 AM
#14
Lexus Fanatic
If that's the case then Toyota better get moving with those fuel cells.
As far as "conservative" products are concerned, I'm not sure what you mean by the term. Toyota / Lexus (along with the Ford Focus) was one of the first manufacturers to use those triangular sweep-back and up-sweep headlights that go way back up the sides of the hood. The Prius and the ES330 are the two most glaring examples. And for 2000 Toyota radically redesigned the Celica into one of the most extreme styles on the road for a mass-produced car.
And when the SC430 came out it was anything BUT conservative in my book.
IMO if you want to see "conservative" look primarily at Mercury and Buick....with a couple of exceptions.
And back to topic....50,000 hybrid Altimas. I still think that given an adequate supply of battery packs, this is doable, but you brought up a good point about them being in short supply.
As far as "conservative" products are concerned, I'm not sure what you mean by the term. Toyota / Lexus (along with the Ford Focus) was one of the first manufacturers to use those triangular sweep-back and up-sweep headlights that go way back up the sides of the hood. The Prius and the ES330 are the two most glaring examples. And for 2000 Toyota radically redesigned the Celica into one of the most extreme styles on the road for a mass-produced car.
And when the SC430 came out it was anything BUT conservative in my book.
IMO if you want to see "conservative" look primarily at Mercury and Buick....with a couple of exceptions.
And back to topic....50,000 hybrid Altimas. I still think that given an adequate supply of battery packs, this is doable, but you brought up a good point about them being in short supply.
Last edited by mmarshall; 06-07-05 at 03:41 AM.
06-18-05, 06:32 AM
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Nissan picks Tennessee plant to manufacture its first hybrid car
By Matt Gouras / Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nissan Motor Co. announced Friday it has picked its assembly plant in Tennessee for production of its first more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle.
The company is entering the hybrid market behind some of its competitors but still expects to sell as many as 50,000 gas-electric Altimas for the 2007 model year -- a fraction of the nearly 1 million vehicles sold by Nissan North America, officials said.
"A lot of it will depend on how sales support it," said Dan Gaudette, Nissan's senior vice president of North American manufacturing and quality assurance.
Gaudette joined Gov. Phil Bredesen at a trade seminar of parts suppliers to announce that production will start in late 2006 for 2007 model year cars.
Nissan will invest $10.4 million for additional equipment and minor modifications to existing assembly lines at the plant in Smyrna, a Nashville suburb.
The company said it's not yet certain how much gas mileage improvement the new hybrid will have over the standard Altima's 31 mpg on the highway and 24 mpg in the city. Hybrid cars get better mileage because they switch between a gasoline engine and an electric motor.
Nissan will license technology from Toyota Motor Corp. instead of developing its own hybrid parts.
Jed Connelly, vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan, said the hybrid line is important despite projections for limited production initially.
"It's a marketing challenge actually because of the fact that it still is an Altima. It is just a technology put in the Altima," Connelly said.
Patrick Hong, senior technical editor at Road & Track Magazine, said manufacturers are tentatively stepping into a hybrid market dominated by Toyota.
"I think the stakes are fairly high in terms of image and sales," he said. "Toyota has the image of being clean because they have the hybrids."
Gaudette said Nissan is eyeing the future with the hybrid offering, looking at the potential to offer other options such as cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells.
"This is just one segment of the process for efficiency, and for environmental concerns as well," he said.
By the end of this year, J.D. Power and Associates predicts a total of 222,000 hybrid vehicles, 1.3 percent of all vehicles, will be sold in the U.S., and most of those will be Toyotas.
Since hybrids usually cost more than regular gas engines, J.D. Power expects the hybrid share of the car market to peak at about 3.5 percent of all sales by 2012.
J.D. Power analyst Anthony Pratt said he doesn't think Nissan will be able to sell 50,000 hybrids right away because it is being rolled into the Altima line rather being offered as a unique model.
"By using Toyota's technology in the short term, it allows Nissan to get into the market quickly without so much of the risk," Pratt said.
Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. already offer hybrids and more are getting ready for market. European manufacturers have been betting on cleaner-burning diesel technology.
"Nissan, I wouldn't say they're falling behind, I would say they are in the middle," said Hong. "At least they are making an effort."
Nissan's plant in Smyrna was built in 1980 as the company's first production facility outside Japan. It already is manufacturing traditional gas-engine Altima and Maxima cars, Xterra and Pathfinder sports utility vehicles and Frontier pickups.
About 6,700 existing employees in Smyrna and 1,300 in an engine assembly plant at Decherd plus 2,800 supplier contractors will be trained to build the new line.
Nissan North America reported a sales increase across all of its brands of 23.7 percent last year, to a total of 985,988 units.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nissan Motor Co. announced Friday it has picked its assembly plant in Tennessee for production of its first more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle.
The company is entering the hybrid market behind some of its competitors but still expects to sell as many as 50,000 gas-electric Altimas for the 2007 model year -- a fraction of the nearly 1 million vehicles sold by Nissan North America, officials said.
"A lot of it will depend on how sales support it," said Dan Gaudette, Nissan's senior vice president of North American manufacturing and quality assurance.
Gaudette joined Gov. Phil Bredesen at a trade seminar of parts suppliers to announce that production will start in late 2006 for 2007 model year cars.
Nissan will invest $10.4 million for additional equipment and minor modifications to existing assembly lines at the plant in Smyrna, a Nashville suburb.
The company said it's not yet certain how much gas mileage improvement the new hybrid will have over the standard Altima's 31 mpg on the highway and 24 mpg in the city. Hybrid cars get better mileage because they switch between a gasoline engine and an electric motor.
Nissan will license technology from Toyota Motor Corp. instead of developing its own hybrid parts.
Jed Connelly, vice president of sales and marketing for Nissan, said the hybrid line is important despite projections for limited production initially.
"It's a marketing challenge actually because of the fact that it still is an Altima. It is just a technology put in the Altima," Connelly said.
Patrick Hong, senior technical editor at Road & Track Magazine, said manufacturers are tentatively stepping into a hybrid market dominated by Toyota.
"I think the stakes are fairly high in terms of image and sales," he said. "Toyota has the image of being clean because they have the hybrids."
Gaudette said Nissan is eyeing the future with the hybrid offering, looking at the potential to offer other options such as cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells.
"This is just one segment of the process for efficiency, and for environmental concerns as well," he said.
By the end of this year, J.D. Power and Associates predicts a total of 222,000 hybrid vehicles, 1.3 percent of all vehicles, will be sold in the U.S., and most of those will be Toyotas.
Since hybrids usually cost more than regular gas engines, J.D. Power expects the hybrid share of the car market to peak at about 3.5 percent of all sales by 2012.
J.D. Power analyst Anthony Pratt said he doesn't think Nissan will be able to sell 50,000 hybrids right away because it is being rolled into the Altima line rather being offered as a unique model.
"By using Toyota's technology in the short term, it allows Nissan to get into the market quickly without so much of the risk," Pratt said.
Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. already offer hybrids and more are getting ready for market. European manufacturers have been betting on cleaner-burning diesel technology.
"Nissan, I wouldn't say they're falling behind, I would say they are in the middle," said Hong. "At least they are making an effort."
Nissan's plant in Smyrna was built in 1980 as the company's first production facility outside Japan. It already is manufacturing traditional gas-engine Altima and Maxima cars, Xterra and Pathfinder sports utility vehicles and Frontier pickups.
About 6,700 existing employees in Smyrna and 1,300 in an engine assembly plant at Decherd plus 2,800 supplier contractors will be trained to build the new line.
Nissan North America reported a sales increase across all of its brands of 23.7 percent last year, to a total of 985,988 units.