Nissan goes green with hybrid, bio-ethanol and flexible fuel vehicles

Nissan Green Program 2010 to showcase environment friendly cars.

22 December 2006

Go green, seems to be the Nissan motto, of late. The Japanese auto major is planning to launch its own hybrid, bio-ethanol and other flexible fuel vehicles as part its Nissan Green Program 2010.

The move comes following the company’s decision to initiate efforts in cutting carbon dioxide and exhaust emissions. Accordingly, it would launch a hybrid vehicle using internally developed technology by April 2010, and would sell it in the Japanese and US markets. 

Moreover, Nissan has promised to make a 100 per cent bio-ethanol fuel vehicle, mostly for the Brazil market, by 2009 and a flexible fuel vehicle - Armada FFV that can run on any blend of ethanol and gasoline - in the United States next year. The auto major said it would cut carbon di oxide emissions from its global manufacturing plants by seven per cent in 2010 compared with 2005 levels.

Meanwhile, t has also been learnt that the automobile manufacturer will launch its Altima sedan in the United States next year using technology licensed from Toyota.

Nissan also plans to improve on the conventional internal-combustion engine and develop the world's first car that can run 100 km on three liters of gasoline. Nissan and its alliance partner Renault SA would jointly develop clean diesel engines that would meet strict emission standards to be introduced in the US and Japan. The partners are expected to launch a new 2-litre diesel engine in the first half of 2007.

The company also has plans to stretch the internal combustion engine technology to cushion off environmental damages. As per this move, it plans to sell a million vehicles equipped with continuously variable transmissions by the end of the 2007-08 fiscal, reports said.

"All these are a must to ensure sustained growth in the medium and longer term," chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga told reporters at Nissan's headquarters in Tokyo.