Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Nissan’s hybrid conundrum
If Carlos Ghosn were a politician, pundits might be accusing him of flip-flopping right about now.
After spending the last few years playing up the merits of zero-emission electric vehicles and knocking down the hybrid hype, the CEO of Nissan Motor appears to be back-pedalling, ever so slightly, on that stance.
The reason? Hybrids have become just too popular to ignore.
The trouble started when the Nikkei, Japan’s premier business daily, reported last month that Nissan was aiming to develop a hybrid system for small and mid-sized mass-market cars, with plans to roll one out in Japan in 2011.
If true, that would signal a change in course for Nissan, which has only announced plans so far to mount its in-house-developed hybrid system on high-end, rear-wheel-drive vehicles. The company declined to confirm or deny the report.
