Nissan Altima Hybrid

It’s the first few curves that get the blood pumping. The realization sets in: This is no anemic hybrid iteration of a popular sedan, no downsized engine aspiring to raise itself by its electric bootstraps to a higher level of highway enlightenment. Rather, it’s a performance vehicle disguised as a high fuel economy sedan. Amazing.

We’re piloting Nissan’s prototype hybrid along highways and streets in Northern California, putting to the test this automaker’s hybrid technology that will find itself first in an Altima sedan sometime in 2006, and more than likely in other models to follow. Coming some six years after Honda’s Insight brought hybrid power to American highways, Nissan’s entry into this field may be later than some would like, but it’s going to be worth the wait.

Just put yourself in Nissan’s shoes. This automaker likes to talk performance, what with its formidable 350Z and array of high-tech engines powering a full product line. Going hybrid is no easy challenge, a thought that had to occur to Nissan’s powers-that-be as the first few years of a new millennium rolled along. Nissan had been working on hybrid technology since the mid-1990s. Green Car Journal editors were behind the wheel of these cars on Nissan test tracks. It was early. The technology was nascent. Performance was what one would expect from developmental hybrid vehicles.




But a change was brewing. Behind the scenes, Nissan and Toyota were talking. This dialogue brought about a strategic agreement in which Nissan would license specific Toyota hybrid technology, mating it with Nissan’s own internal combustion engines. It was, as Nissan’s present Altima Hybrid prototype shows, a very synergistic match.

The Nissan we’re driving combines the Altima’s popular 175 hp, 2.5-liter DOHC four cylinder engine with a next-generation Toyota Synergy Drive electric motor. While Nissan won’t identify this electric motor’s specs as yet, it’s said to offer better than 100 hp, substantial for a hybrid. This high-tech Altima also incorporates a Nissan adaptation of Toyota’s electronic motor controller. Together, it’s a package offering impressive acceleration and none of the performance sacrifices expected of first-generation hybrids.

Like Toyota’s own Synergy Drive-equipped hybrid vehicles – the current Prius and upcoming Highlander and Lexus RX-400h SUVs – the Nissan Altima hybrid is a versatile machine. It operates on electric-only power at low speeds, internal combustion engine power at higher speeds, and both electric and gas powerplants when power needs are great.

Licensing Toyota’s Synergy Drive technology for its upcoming hybrid models allows Nissan to benefit from Toyota’s substantial hybrid experience while also compressing the develop-mental time frame. Our time behind the wheel shows this is a winning combination. While Nissan’s Altima Hybrid prototype is just that — an early prototype with its youth showing — it is a solid demonstration of Nissan’s direction and a valuable look at what this automaker has in mind for its high-performance hybrid models to come.