Nissan may be generating electric buzz with the new Leaf, but when it comes to hybrids, the company has never been a leader. After all, the discontinued Altima Hybrid didn’t even use a Nissan-designed system, but hybrid technology borrowed from Toyota. Without that car—which was actually only sold in 10 states with California’s strict emissions standards—the company doesn’t offer a single gas-electric.
That will change in 2013, however. Nissan has announced that the North American market will get a new hybrid vehicle that year, with an all-new hybrid-electric powertrain. The engine at the heart of it is a supercharged 2.5-liter inline four, and it’s paired with a next-generation continuously variable transmission. The configuration is similar to what Nissan did in the Infiniti M35h hybrid, with an electric motor packaged between the engine and transmission. The motor itself is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack.
Altogether, the company claims, the hybrid powertrain will produce power levels equal to a 3.5-liter V6—for reference, Nissan’s makes 270 horses in the current Altima—while delivering far better fuel economy on both the city and highway ends of things. Because it uses a CVT and a small-displacement engine as its base, the new hardware will also fit in existing vehicles and could end up in any number of places. We view the Murano as a top candidate, along with the next Altima, which we spied in August. And while the new hybrid powertrain is as powerful as a 3.5-liter V-6, we do expect them to live side-by-side for the foreseeable future.
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