Nissan to Almost Double Mileage With Hybrid Infiniti

Nissan (NSANY) aims to nearly double the mileage with a hybrid version of its Infiniti M sedan compared with gasoline engine version, Reuters reported. The car is Nissan's first hybrid developed in-house. Previous Nissan hybrids have used a customized version of Toyota's (TM) hybrid technology.

The car will operate with a one-motor, two-clutch system and a lithium-ion battery. This will allow the engine to idle more frequently when the car isn't moving, Koichi Hayasaki, chief engineer of Nissan's rear-wheel-drive hybrid system told Reuters.

"We're aiming for an improvement of 60% to 90%," in mileage Hayasaki, said. Testing showed that the engine is stopped around half the time during city driving, Hayasaki said.

Nissan, Japan's third-largest automaker, is over a decade behind rivals Honda (HMC) and Toyota in offering a proprietary hybrid car, Reuters said.