At Nissan's Advanced Technology Centre, experimental car batteries sit in freezing temperatures, cooked in giant metal boxes, and rattled to simulate driving. These batteries are part of the automaker's efforts to catch up in the race to develop greener auto technology.
"NATC has been established to accelerate the research and advanced engineering of breakthrough technologies for Nissan's next generation products," Nissan executive vice president Mitsuhiko Yamashita said. "Future technologies being developed are aimed at environmental sustainability and towards creating a safer mobile society," he said.
The Kanagawa-based technology center is now absorbed in advancing lithium-ion batteries, perceived as beneficial because they are smaller than existing systems. These batteries were being tested to withstand extreme temperatures. The new facility underlines the determination of Japan's third largest automaker to develop environmental and safety technologies that are increasingly crucial for riding out the tight rivalry in the auto industry.
Car manufacturers have increased investments in alternative-energy vehicles, as environmental awareness and increasing gasoline prices boost demand. "Whether products with technology that appeals to consumers can be offered in a timely manner will determine the winners and the losers," Nissan chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn said in Japanese at the opening of the Advanced Technology Center.
Ghosn noted Nissan was under no pressure to find a new alliance partner, although his company had taken part in talks with General Motors Corp. GM eventually rejected the concept. "We're not talking with anybody," he added. "I don't think it's the right timing today." He also said that he was satisfied with the scale of the Nissan-Renault partnership and that expanding the alliance would not be a must for gaining an edge in technology, because Nissan was developing its own technology.
Officials of the Japanese automaker acknowledged that the near-collapse Nissan went through after a 1999 alliance with Renault SA of France meant it could not invest in technology as much as they would have liked. The officials added that for the last several years, Nissan has been investing more in developing new technologies.
Analysts in the industry said that Nissan has fallen behind Japanese rivals - the Toyota Motor Corp. and the Honda Motor Co. - in developing gas-and-electric hybrid cars and other technologies that lessen gas emissions blamed for global warming.
Yasuaki Iwamoto, an auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo, said that investing in the Advanced Technology Center was a step in the right direction for Nissan. "Otherwise, Nissan has no chance of surviving the competition," he said. "Catching up won't be that easy for Nissan. It's not as though Toyota and Honda are going to sit still and do nothing."
Analysts added breakthroughs may be exactly what Nissan needs if it hopes to narrow the gap in hybrids with industry leaders like Toyota and Honda. Although hybrid sales are still a meager part of those for standard models, brand image tends to get a good lift from such auto technology. Sales of Toyota hybrids and Honda small cars have soared in the U.S. and other overseas markets lately because of the rise in gasoline prices.
Nissan senior vice president Minoru Shinohara said that Nissan was not preoccupied with what rivals might be doing but that it was focused on its own goals, such as perfecting its original hybrid system that he said would outperform the competition.
In 2006, the automaker launched a hybrid but it now licenses the technology from Toyota. At present, Nissan is working on an original hybrid, scheduled to be launched by 2010, using what it says is a superior kind of battery technology: the lithium-ion battery. The latter is common in gadgets like mobile phones and laptops. However, it has yet to be fully adapted to the more scrupulous demands of a car engine. Hybrids from Toyota and Honda use nickel-metal hydride batteries. But all major automakers, like GM, are working on lithium-ion batteries for vehicles.
Aside from enhancing and other auto parts, the Japanese automaker also is busy with the development of a "three-liter car" that can travel 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, on just three liters or about three quarts of gasoline. The Japanese automaker intends to unveil a new model in Japan in 2010. "We have been preparing now for several years, and we are ready with several key kinds of advanced technology," Shinohara said.
"Whether products with technology that appeals to consumers can be offered in a timely manner will determine the winners and the losers," Ghosn noted.
