The 2013 Altima, as previously noted, the 2013 Altima will ditch the fantastic but poorly selling V6 engine. In its place will be a hybrid four cylinder powertrain. Oh, and it’s supercharged, of course. Well, yeah.

Nissan expects similar output to the V6 from this fancy new setup, with about 10% better fuel economy. Similar power with better fuel economy is always a noble goal, but I’m having trouble with this one. Adding a hybrid system (electric motor and a lithium ion battery) adds a lot of complexity to a car… but more importantly it adds a lot of cost. Superchargers are a great way to wring more power out of a small engine, but they decrease fuel efficiency and add, once again, cost.

I’m not seeing how this powertrain makes sense for Nissan from a cost standpoint. There’s no way around it – this is an expensive setup. Adding all that complexity and cost for a mere 10% bump in fuel economy doesn’t seem worth it to me.

Want to see some awesome pictures of this setup? Check them out at Autoblog.

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Toyota is running the board in hybrid sales, and they have no intentions of letting up. The Prius C is proof of that. The Prius C is a compact hybrid that will be both cheaper and more fuel efficient than the regular Prius. According to Toyota, the Prius C will have “the highest city mpg of any non-plug-in vehicle,” which is a pretty bold statement. The “big” Prius is not exactly a slouch in the city fuel efficiency department.

Since it’s smaller, the Prius C will also cost less than the regular Prius. Toyota hasn’t announced a starting price quite yet, but it will likely be in the $20-21k range.

How big is it?
Well, at 157.3 inches, it’s 19 inches shorter than a Prius. It’s actually 4 inches shorter than a Honda Fit, to give you a better idea.

What’s under the hood?
The Hybrid Synergy Drive, of course. Specifically, a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder gas engine hooked up to a battery and electric motor. Specs on the electric half of the powertrain aren’t available yet. We’re not even sure if it will use lithium ion or nickel metal hydride, though I’d bet on the latter. Remember, this is a low cost hybrid. Lithium batteries are still pretty pricey.

2012 Prius C Photos

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Hybridcarblog has doubts about the power of lithium:

Certainly, when it comes to plug-in vehicles, I’m confident that lithium offers more potential than NiMH. But how much more? Enough to top the 3 percent share of hybrid cars?

Lithium has long been expected to take hybrids to the next level. With the ability to offer more energy-dense batteries, this makes perfect sense. That gives automakers the choice of just creating a lighter battery of the same power, or a much more powerful battery of the same weight. The problem? Well, cost, of course.

The key to this all, just like most everything in the automotive world, is mass production. In the world of hybrids, that’s Toyota. For lithium to really be the next step in hybrids, Toyota has to jump in with both feet. There’s just no other way around it.

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The current Altima Hybrid uses a Toyota hybrid system. Apparently Nissan is tired of sending money to their rival, so they’re developing a brand new hybrid system all of their own. At it’s core is, of all things, a supercharged four cylinder engine. That potent powerplant will be hooked up to an electric motor and lithium ion battery pack.

Due in 2013, Nissan expects this very sophisticated powertrain to produce power similar to their 3.5 liter V6 engine, but with much better fuel economy. Though I’m most certainly a fan of combining power and fuel economy, Nissan is going the wrong direction here. Think way back to Honda’s Accord hybrid experiment. In that case, Honda mated their V6 engine to the hybrid powertrain. The result? A very powerful, very quick, very expensive, not very efficient hybrid that sold very poorly. Nissan’s plan sounds similar.

Mr. Ghosn, here’s a free tip. Ditch the cool supercharger, and focus on making a ridiculously efficient plain-jane four-cylinder hybrid Altima. And this time, offer it across the country, instead of just a few states. You’re welcome.

Source.

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That does, of course, include the destination fee. What does 54 grand buy you in the Infiniti hybrid world? A 360 horsepower, 29 MPG midsize luxury sedan. That’s 29 MPG combined – 27 MPG city, 32 MPG highway. A conventionally powered M37 (powered by a 3.7 liter V6) starts at just over $48k, so you’re looking at a ~$6k premium for the hybrid powertrain.

In the world of luxury cars, $6k isn’t a huge sum of money. But then again, buyers of this sort of car tend not to concern themselves with trivialities such as fuel economy. I doubt Infiniti is planning to move a lot of these – it exists to exist. In other words, Infiniti can now say they have a hybrid.

Read more about the 2012 M35 Hybrid.

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The Infiniti M35 is no joke – it’s a boldly designed, powerful, luxurious mid-size car. The only thing it had been missing, until now, was a fuel-efficient version. Consider that problem solved with the introduction of the 2012 Infiniti M35h Hybrid. With EPA estimates of 27 MPG city / 32 MPG highway / 29 MPG combined, this is a relatively thrifty luxury sedan.

While the 2012 M35h doesn’t get nearly as good fuel economy as the Lincoln MKZ hybrid, don’t forget that car uses a four-cylinder engine as the basis for it’s hybrid system. The M35h has a much more powerful 302 HP 3.5 liter V6. Combined with the 50 kW electric motor, total output is a stout 360 HP.

Compared to the conventially powered 2012 M37, the M35h is better both in the power and economy front. The M37 makes 30 less horsepower, and gets just 18 MPG city / 26 MPG highway. Adding power while drastically improving fuel economy is always nice.

The real question, as is usual with hybrids, is price. Make no mistake – the 2012 M35h will not be cheap. A plain-jane M37 starts at just over $47, and that’s before you tick any options boxes. What sort of price premium will Infiniti slap on the hybrid? For now, your guess is as good as mine.

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The 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid is rated at a not-too-shabby 40 MPG on the highway. That’s not good enough for a fellow by the name of Wayne Gerdes, though. See, Wayne is the ultimate hypermiler. He takes regular cars and extracts every mile from a tank of gas. Take a look at what he did with the Sonata Hybrid:

CleanMPG’s own Wayne Gerdes left the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, CA on December 26, 2010 and completed the challenge drive to the Atlantic on Jekyll Island, GA on January 1, 2011. The drive required just one stop for refueling after driving 1221.2 miles. The run totaled 2339.5 miles and averaged an impressive 61.42 miles per gallon with a meager 38 gallons of fuel consumed for the entire trip.

That’s over a fifty percent improvement from EPA estimates. Unreal.

Source.

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Priced from $26545, the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid is the Korean automaker’s first entry into the hybrid market. The Sonata Hybrid bucks the normal hybrid trend by performing better on the highway than in the city, with EPA ratings of 35 MPG city and 40 MPG on the highway.

Though it can’t touch the Ford Fusion Hybrid’s 41 MPG city number, the Hyundai manages to slip under the Fusion by over $3000. Three grand buys quite a bit of gas these days, and should help smooth over any worries about efficiency. When you consider the superior highway efficiency (40 vs 36), the Sonata starts to make even more sense.

What’s under the hood?
Hyundai decided to skip the whole old-school NiMH battery technology and go right to the cutting-edge Lithium Polymer stuff. Featuring a 1.4 kWH LiPo battery pack that’s 20-30 percent lighter than a comparable NiMH pack, the Sonata Hybrid manages to keep curb weight down to a reasonable 3457 lbs.

A 169 HP 2.4 liter four-cylinder engine provides most of the power, and it is aided by a 30 kW electric motor. Combined power is estimated by Hyundai to be 209 HP and 194 lb-ft of torque. That bests the conventional four-cylinder Sonata by a bit, which should help make up for the slight weight penalty. Instead of the normal hybrid choice of a CVT, the Sonata Hybrid makes due with a six speed automatic transmission. That’s somewhat of an odd choice, considering the CVT’s inherent efficiency advantages. Check out the pics after the jump.

2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Gallery

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Mike Kruzeniski on Hybrid vs Truck sales over the past decade:

To concentrate on the significant change in purchases in the last decade, I made another graphic that focuses on just 1999 and 2009. I also looked in to the percentage of total vehicle market share for the two categories. The relative vehicle market share of trucks has decreased by 3%, down to 16% of the total market. Hybrids have grown from 0.0001% of the market in 1999, to 2.8% in 2009.

There’s a lot of data in the article, complete with graphs galore. Mike paints a really interesting picture in this gas guzzler vs gas sipper comparison. It’s definitely worth a read.

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It turns out I’m not the only one who is concerned with the stratospheric pricing of the 2011 Touareg Hybrid. Take a look at what RideLust had to say:

It looks like VW is again pricing the 2011 Touareg beyond the reach of the masses, especially in hybrid form. The Touareg Hybrid, Autoblog tells us, will sticker at $61,385 before you begin adding options to it. Sure, that’s 10% less that the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid, but no one expects a Porsche to be sensibly priced.

They hit the nail on the head, of course. No one expects a Porsche to be reasonably priced. Porsches are sexy beasts; they’re exotic. Volkswagen makes Punch Buggies and Jettas. They make the ultimate teenage girls’ cars. No one wants a $60k Volkswagen.

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