2007 Nissan Altima hybrid car

Sales of hybrid vehicles have increased substantially and in fact, it has doubled in the first five months of 2005 as compared to last year sales. Nissan announced that it is going to introduce its first gasoline hybrid passenger car which will start its manufacturing at Smyrna plant some time from next year.

No, Nissan is not going to build its own hybrid system but will be licensing the hybrid system from Toyota Motor Co. Nissan promised a better fuel economy in its coming 2007 Nissan Altima hybrid car with a increased performance. This is going to be the third hybrid vehicle in US after Ford's Escape hybrid sport utility vehicle and Toyota's Camry Sedan, which is also going on production floor next year.

Regular Altima has a base price of $24,530 and introduction of hybrid is most likely to add another $3000 to it. However there was no formal announcement about the pricing of 2007 Nissan Altima hybrid car. Nissan contract with Toyota restricts it with only 50,000 units per year.

Nissan is entering into the market where the top spot is captured by Toyota Prius followed by Honda Civic. Lets see how it could penetrate the market currently captured by these two carmakers.