You know that advertisement for the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid where a douchey fellow suggests that “they should hybrid (sic) this thing”? I would post the video, but it seems that Cadillac has pulled all trace of the spot from the interwebs leaving only the marginally less insipid “cupholders” and “checkmate” ads on its website. And though it’s strange to plumb the Tubes of You for hours and not find this mythically inane third ad, it’s disappearance down the memory hole isn’t surprising at all. The spot suggested a troglodyte’s approach to hybrid technology that is only underscored by the reality of GM’s hybrid strategy: quick-n-dirty BAS, expensive and complex two-mode system, and moon-shot EREV. Hybrid this. Okay, now hybrid that. [ED: Zammy found it!] But Nissan’s announcement today that it will be bringing a hybrid version of its Infiniti M to the US market in 2010 has to put the Japanese firm in contention for worst hybrid strategy around.
Or, perhaps not. It’s distinctly possible that calling this decision a “strategy” at all is to praise with faint damnation (so to speak). Nissan’s only other hybrid offering is the plaintively me-too Altima Hybrid, complete with a licensed version of Toyota’s Synergy Drive. And now this? A hybrid RWD luxury sedan? Toyota ‘s Lexus division may have sold 16,858 hybrid hoopties last year, but no fewer than 15,200 of them were of the RX400h persuasion. And from anecdotal evidence, most of the remaining 1,658 hybrid sedans must have been LS600hs. Like GM, Nissan is trying to keep a half-hearted toe in the hybrid pool while nerving itself to leap into the great (ER)EV unknown. And like GM, its unfocused hybrid efforts are consistently coming across as wastes of time and money.
And for what? Does Nissan think putting a single hybrid in each of its US brands makes any kind of impact on the consumer? More troublingly, does Nissan think it can compete with Lexus’s GS for its niche within a niche? GM’s Escalade Hybrid (and pulled ad) prove that hybrid filler products can do as much harm as good, slapping an ugly, cynical face on your ostensibly feel-good, eco-halo product.
Yeah, this is lame. The original strategy wasn’t a bad one — if you can’t beat Toyota, join ’em. But then the old Not Invented Here syndrome got the best of Nissan, like it does most automakers.
They won’t sell 1,000 of these, and they will lose tens (or hundreds!) of millions of dollars in development costs. I’m just glad the US taxpayer won’t get saddled with this one.
Outside of Toyota, Honda and Ford are the only ones developing realistic hybrid strategies. Everyone else is living a fantasy.
Didn’t Carlos Ghosn say he thought hybrids were a bad idea? So the half-assed strategy is probably all the product planners can get him to approve.
I read that Nissan wanted to make a Sentra hybrid to compete with the Prius but the gas prices went down before it could be implemented.
C’mon Carlos, I know you are smarter than this!
I actually like this strategy. In LA this last year Carlos was laying out their direction of needing to get into hybrid tech so they can have a foothold. An M hybrid with this system doesn’t seem too bad, the concept appears to be much more cost effective than GM’s two mode system, time will tell if the cost is reasonable or not. I think if it is reasonable and it works well in the M then any RWD Nissan could be a target for the system. Sometimes forward progress has to start this way.
Why did Nissan even bother designing the Altima Hybrid if they weren’t going to make it available across the US?
It seems like Nissan really does have no hybrid strategy. And with the Maxima diesel supposedly DOA this leaves the brand precious little green cred.
Man, did Toyota cream the application of Hybrid technology! The futher down the line we get, the more obvious the sheer Genius becomes.
Even the normally sane Honda just can’t get it right: first they produced the weird-looking two-seater Insight(I?), then the oxymoronic performance hybrid Accord. Now they conceded and basically copied the Prius.
Sure, Toyota probably got lucky, but man, they do look like a Genius when it comes to hybrids…
I remember that commercial, but don’t think I have the patience to sift through 1.2 Terabytes of recorded tv on my various hard drives to try to see if I have it recorded.
I hate it when you can’t find a certain commercial though, I’ve been looking for the Budweiser “C’mon and Raise it Up” song commercial for ages.
I actually approve of this, so long as they don’t package the CVT with it (which ruins everything, everywhere, everytime) or install it in the G cars. Hybrids deliver a more refined very low speed experience, which is appropriate for vehicles where the focus is on back seat comfort. This will totally ruin BMW comparisons for the car and put it more in line with Mercedes/Lexus’ intended audience though, which is not what I think Nisann generally aims to do.
Overall I prefer Nisaan as a BMW wannabe, but if they can muster sales then I guess this is kind of like having your cake and eating it. If it dosen’t work saleswise then I’ll wholeheartedly agree with the “half-assed” criticism.
The Nissan Fuga (JDM Infiniti M) is relatively popular is Japan, and hybrids are apparently still very popular in Japan.
So for the Japanese market the hybrid Fuga makes a lot of sense.
Other than whatever emissions testing needs to be done the sales of the hybrid Infiniti M, no matter how small, are basically free, since the car was developed for the Japanese market (unlike the hybrid Escalade).
A powerful RWD based hybrid will not hurt Infiniti’s performance image, and will have some greenwashing and CAFE benefits.
Their hybrid strategy can’t possibly be worse than GM’s, which seems to be about as ass-backwards as possible. What they need is a class competitive compact and some “green cred” from a true midsize hybrid sedan. What we get is a half-assed effort like the Malibu hybrid and an Escalade hybrid that nobody but the very rich can afford, and not one damn soul that considers themselves environmentally aware would touch with a 10 foot pole. Theirs is undoubtedly the worst hybrid strategy possible, even worse than no strategy at all, IMO. At least no strategy would cost no money. A bullshit strategy costs money and goes nowhere.
Wow, this commercial was buried deep:
http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w136/jeri101_photo/?action=view¤t=MVI_0581.flv
Listen, there’s at least 200 people out there screaming for an Infiniti M hybrid.
The worst hybrid strategy would be to have a “hybrid strategy”. Nissan deserves credit for paying only lip service to this silly fad.