Nissan

European Infiniti models to get diesels in 2010

Nissan finally launched their premium Infiniti brand in Europe this week with the world debut of the new FX at the Geneva Motor Show. Nissan (and Renault) boss Carlos Ghosn obviously knows that if you're going to take on the likes of BMW and Audi on their home turf, you had better have the right product. While it's questionable whether the FX50 and EX37 are the right products for Europe, one element that will definitely help their chances, is the availability of diesel power. In Geneva, Ghosn confirmed that the European Infiniti lineup will be getting a new diesel being developed by Nissan and Renault starting in 2010. The diesel, likely the 3.0L shown by Renault last fall and already announced for the U.S.-market Nissan Maxima, will be tweaked for the Infiniti models, likely yielding somewhere over 250hp and making it competitive with the dual turbo 3.0L offered by BMW in the 535d and other models. Whether U.S.-bound Infinitis will get diesels is unknown as Nissan has previously indicated that their in-house developed hybrid system would go into some of those models.

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.
Infiniti to launch high-speed hybrid system in 2011

Even before Nissan introduced the Altima hybrid late in 2006 using a licensed Toyota hybrid system, they started development work on their own in-house system. More recently, there were indications that the Nissan system might first appear on Infiniti models. Now it looks like the system that is being developed will follow the path of Porsche and GM's Two-Mode hybrid system and allow electric assist at higher speeds. What's not known is whether the motor will be able to run along with the engine for extra boost as the two-mode system does, or if it will be able to run solely on electricity at highway speeds as the Porsche system allows. The new hybrid is expected to appear on the next-generation Infiniti FX in about 2011.

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