Nissan to end Toyota hybrid tie-up

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Nissan Motor Co. will develop a new hybrid vehicle technology on its own, which would end a joint agreement with Toyota Motor Corp., sources said Friday.

The independently produced low-emission and fuel-efficient models will be released on 2010, the sources said.
In the wake of rising oil prices, demand for hybrid models has grown rapidly, leading Nissan to reconsider its previous stance of cooperating with Toyota on hybrid developments, the sources said.
The new compact car models will be equipped with a lithium-ion battery system and include a plug-in hybrid vehicle that can be recharged at home.
Compared with nickel-hydrogen batteries, which Toyota and Honda Motor Co. have used, the lithium-ion battery has more capacity and can be recharged more quickly.


Nissan and Toyota agreed in 2002 to work together on hybrid vehicle developments. Toyota's hybrid systems will be used in about 100,000 units of Nissan's Altima Hybrid model, which the automaker plans to put on the U.S. market early next year.
However, since Nissan now intends to mass-produce its own models, it is considering using Toyota's systems on just the Altima model sold in the United States.


Toyota likely will agree to Nissan's decision. A representative for Toyota said it would not provide its hybrid systems to Nissan for other models than the Altima unless Nissan requested it to do so.
Nissan had not embarked on full-scale mass production of hybrid cars since it wanted to wait and see which types of low-emission cars would come to dominate the market. The maker has released only hybrid minivans on a limited scale, but as hybrid car sales by Toyota and Honda have grown in Japan and the United States, Nissan decided it would lose market share unless it entered the market with its own models.


Toyota initially considered the joint venture as the best way to promote the use of hybrid vehicles, going as far as to provide its systems to a rival to help hybrid models become more mainstream.
With Nissan showing a serious intent to mass-produce hybrid cars on its own, competition among carmakers over developing low-emission vehicles likely will intensify.



http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business...23TDY01006.htm

 

As long as people are paying a rediculous premium for the technology (not to mention the high-margin upgrades that come std in most hybrid models, "leather", audio, etc) hybrid power systems are going to present a compelling business case. But I think Nissan has wrongly identified conventional hybrid tech as a growth opportunity. Once the novelty wears and new tech looks promising, and consumers pull their heads out of their small intestines, I think we'll again see cooperation among auto manufacturers in alternative power development.

M.

 

a) it's Nickel Metal Hydride not Nickel hydrogen

b) I'm not surprised since Nissan is using Toyota's THS-II system (i.e. the old system on the 01-03 Prius) not the newer HSD.

c) Either way, hybrids will be in the future. Gas-electric hybrids are the stopgap but hybrids in general (all types) will be the future. Why? Well, think about it. A fuel cell car is more or less a hybrid. All current FCV prototypes have a battery pack and regenerative braking just like current gas-electric hybrids. Besides, a FC hybrid will still get better mileage than a regular hydrogen ICE car.

 

I thought A) was funny myself hehe

b) is something we've been making fun of Nissan about lately (and also the ford escape hybrid as well)

 

Ford isn't using Toyota's system. They developed their own. They paid a bounty to Toyota when they found out their system had some things in common with Toyotas and to avoid patent infringement and lawsuit... or so the story goes.

 

story is more like Ford being way to cheap to design the system themselves, they pulled their suppliers together and tried to make them design it together... which really didnt work out since 20 different suppliers were supposed to design the whole thing.

So after their original plan was set back by an year, due to system not working, Ford took more control over the project and paid some licensing fees to Toyota. Obviously, with Toyota being 10-12 years up on everyone, every other manufacturer is looking at what Toyota has done (which is completly normal)...

I have followed progress on their hybrid development for a while, hence the info...There was really nice and long article in Autoweek in 2003-2004 where Ford executives thought they were really smart by letting suppliers do it (and spend money instead of them), and follow up article year later about why they couldnt do it...