The Nissan Advanced Technology Center, experimental car batteries sit in freezing temperatures, cooked in giant metal boxes and simulate driving rattled. These batteries are part of the efforts of car manufacturers lagging behind in the race for more environmentally friendly car technology to be developed.
”NATC has been established to accelerate the research and advanced engineering of breakthrough technologies for the next generation of Nissan products,” Nissan Executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita said. “Future technologies being developed in the environmental impact and creating a secure mobile society,” he said.
The Kanagawa-based technology center is now in the promotion of the lithium-ion batteries, as is advantageously felt included because they are smaller than existing systems. These batteries have been tested to withstand extreme temperatures. The new facility underlines the determination of the third largest automobile manufacturer in Japan to develop environmental and safety technologies that are increasingly riding out the tight rivalry in the automotive industry is crucial.
The automobile manufacturers have increased investments in alternative energy vehicles, such as boost environmental awareness and rising gasoline demand. “Whether products with technology that appeals can be offered to consumers in time, will determine the winners and losers,” Nissan Chief Executive Officer, said Carlos Ghosn in Japan at the opening of the Advanced Technology Center.
Ghosn Nissan has been established under any pressure to find new allies, even though his company was in talks with General Motors Corp. GM ultimately rejected the concept. “We do not talk to anyone,” he added. “I do not think that it is the timing right now.” He also said that he was satisfied with the extent of the Nissan-Renault partnership, and that enlargement of the alliance would not be a must for a head start in technology because Nissan is developing its own technology.
Officials acknowledged the Japanese car manufacturer that the near-collapse Nissan went through after 1999, an alliance with Renault SA of France, it could not invest in technology that have so much wished for. The official added that for the last few years Nissan has been investing more in the development of new technologies.
Analysts said the industry has fallen behind Japanese rivals Nissan – Toyota Motor Corporation and Honda Motor Co. – in the development of gas and hybrid cars and other technologies, the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming reduction made .
Yasuaki Iwamoto, an auto analyst at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo, said that was investing in the Advanced Technology Center is a step in the right direction for Nissan. “Anything to survive, Nissan no chance, is the competition,” he said. “Catching up is not so easy for Nissan. It’s not like Toyota and Honda are going to sit still and do nothing.”
Analysts may have openings exactly what Nissan, when he hopes to bridge the gap in hybrids with industry leaders like Toyota and Honda narrow needs. Although hybrid sales are still part of this lean receive for standard models, rather the brand image to a good lift from such auto-technology. Sales of hybrid Toyota and Honda small cars have risen in the U.S. and other overseas markets lately because of rising gasoline prices.
Nissan Senior Vice President Minoru Shinohara said that Nissan is not with what could rival this worked, but that on its own goals, such as perfecting its original hybrid system, which he said focused outperform the competition.
In 2006, the automaker launched a hybrid, but it now licenses the technology from Toyota. Currently, Nissan is working on an original hybrid, to be launched in 2010 to life by what she says is a superior kind of battery technology: the lithium-ion battery. The latter is common in devices such as mobile phones and laptops. However, it has not yet adjusted fully to the demands of a serious car engine. Hybrids from Toyota and Honda use nickel-metal hydride batteries. But all the major car manufacturers like GM, which with lithium-ion batteries for vehicles.
Besides improving the exhaust manifold, Nissan and other car parts, Japanese car makers with the development of a “three-liter car” which is 100 kilometers or 60 miles, working on just three liters, or about three liters of gasoline can go. The Japanese car manufacturer plans to unveil a new model in Japan in 2010. Have prepared, “We were now for several years, and we are ready with several key kinds of advanced technology,” Shinohara said.
”Whether products with technology that appeals can be offered to consumers in time, will determine the winners and losers,” Ghosn noted.
Nissan is focused on green technologies
Comments are closed.
