The Nissan Altima Hybrid currently uses a 244.8V NiMH battery pack made by Panasonic. “It sits immediately behind the seat back. The presence of the pack consumes about one third of the trunk space, dropping it from 15.3 cu.ft. to 10.1 cu.ft. The remaining volume is well shaped and useful, but small.”
Nissan just announced sale of an Altima hybrid and now Nissan Motor, NEC Corporation, and NEC TOKIN Corporation have agreed that by 2009 they will develop and market lithium-ion batteries for wide-scale automotive application. Advanced lithium batteries are the best current battery technology for electric drive, to include hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles.
When I read the Autoblog Green review of the new Altima hybrid, I wanted to ask “Where do you plug it in and what is its all-electric range?” The same questions to be asking about any of the current crop of HEVs, the leader of which is the Toyota Prius.
The Altima is Nissan’s first foray into the hybrid market. Nissan has started selling the 2007 Nissan Altima Hybrid in the U.S. (ABG reports that Nissan will manufacture the Altima hybrid in the United States.)
Like Ford Motor Company with the Ford Escape HEV, Nissan intially began building the Altima Hybrid with Toyota components. ABG notes that the Nissan system is the same as other similar Hybrid configurations. Nissan software tunes the system to give the Altima Hybrid an added, sporty feel and extend the EV mode.
The eCVT transaxle in the HEV is very different than the conventional car’s steel belt CVT. It incorporates two electric motors coupled to the engine via a planetary gear set, and the relative motions of the sun, planet and ring gears determine vehicle speed.
The Altima hybrid is direct competition to success of the Toyota Prius and the announced joint venture emphasizes the competition and how far Nissan is behind Toyota. The GCC story states:
NEC group had been working with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. to develop lithium-ion automotive batteries through a joint-venture: NEC Lamilion Energy Ltd. This partnership was dissolved in March 2006 when Fuji Heavy, the maker of Subaru vehicles, moved under Toyota’s umbrella.
Electric drive enthusiasts see as positive more competition to Toyota-Fuji Heavy battery group. So, in addition to the Nissan and NEC joint effort, other major battery makers like Toshiba, Panasonic, Sanyo are focused on products for future BEVs, HEVs and plug-in hybrids. GCC commentator, Harvey D, in welcoming the good news that many high performance battery packs may be available by 2009/10, asks:
Wonder where A123, Altairnano and EEStor will fit in? Alliances with large Chinese battery manufacturers would be essential to compete with well established large Japanese manufacturers.
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[...] mentioned the BYD F3, Porsche Cayenne SUV, Kia Rio, PSA Peugeot-Citroen HDi, Ford Escape, and the Nissan Altima. This is a sample from this blog, other announcements probably were missed, and a few milder [...]