Nissan Car

Nissan Motor Co Ltd said it had developed a hybrid electric car which combines the benefits of an electric vehicle with those of a conventional gasoline-powered car. Nissan hopes to market the vehicle by the end of 1998, but declined to confirm details on price and volume. The hybrid car is equipped with an electric motor and agasoline engine, which powers a generator to produceelectricity to run a traction motor. The car can be driven without charging the batteries from an external power source.

The hybrid system has double the driving range of a gasoline engine-powered car, while emissions are also dramatically reduced compared with a conventional two-litre gasoline engine car.

 

Nissan said its hybrid car uses new, high power-density lithium-ion batteries jointly developed with Sony Corp. The new batteries will be one third the size and weight of conventional lithium-ion batteries, it said.

In March, rival Toyota Motor Corp said it had developed a hybrid power system for use in mass-produced passenger cars and would launch sales of passenger cars using the system later this year.