According to an article on Forbesautos.com, Nissan is betting that the future cars are going to be electric and “hybrids are yesterday’s news.”  They think that plug-in electric cars are the next big thing that will happen in the auto industry.  Nissan is testing a new electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries called the Cube.  Nissan will continue to embrace the hybrid technology by making hybrid versions of their existing models. By not making a model exclusively as a hybrid, Nissan will have more time and money to spend on the electric cars.  Currently, the Nissan Altima comes as a hybrid, but sales have not been good.

Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, and Subaru are currently working on battery-powered vehicles. 

The problems with electric cars are the limitations of them. You can only travel a certain amount of miles before the vehicle needs to be recharged, usually less than 50 miles.  Nissan is not disclosing how far it expects the Cube to be able to go.  Another problem is that the batteries are very expensive, up to $10,000 for the battery alone.

As the push for alternative-fuel vehicles continues, automakers will have to find different ways to fuel are cars for the least amount of money to the consumer.

 

 

 

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