Infiniti Says Its First Hybrid - Based on Redesigned M35 - Will Launch in 2011
By John O'Dell October 7, 2009
Nissan's first self-developed hybrid system will make its debut in 2011 in the company's luxury line, under the hood of the 2012 Infiniti M35 sedan, the automaker said this morning.
The hybrid version of the car will hit the streets a year after the redesigned, conventionally powered M35 is launched next spring as a 2011 model.
Infiniti describes its first-ever hybrid system, developed entirely within Nissan (the system in the Nissan Altima hybrid was licensed from Toyota), as a single electric motor-dual clutch arrangement with the first clutch installed between the electric motor and gas engine.
The company is withholding information about range, power, battery size and capacity, transmission design and performance - likely so it can get a second splash in the automotive media when the numbers are released.
But Green Car Advisior was in Japan on a Nissan-sponsored trip last year when the company first showed off its new hybrid system, in a G35 (back then it was slated to appear in the Infiniti lineup in a 2010 model, so it is coming two years later than initially expected). Here's what we reported about the system back then:
Nissan's wrinkle is that it mates the electric motor to a 3.5-liter V6 - that, at least, is what was in the prototype G35 sedan (above) that we drove - via a pair of clutches. One is mounted between the gas engine and the electric motor, the other after the electric motor at the tail end of a seven-speed automatic transmission.
The arrangement lets the clutches replace the automatic's power-wasting torque converter, improving engine responsiveness and helping boost fuel efficiency. Nissan wouldn't provide any solid numbers, but said the powerful V6 would deliver "compact car" gas mileage.
When the car is accelerating, both the gas and electric motors are operating and both clutches are engaged. In low-speed "urban" driving (or in traffic jams), the electric motor does all the work and the front clutch disengages because the gas engine is shut down and offers no power to be processed.
At higher city speeds, the electric motor shuts down and the gas engine provides all the power. Both clutches are activated, however, with the rear clutch enabling power from the spinning electric motor to be channeled back into the battery pack to help recharge it.
In the hybrid's fourth mode, regeneration, the gas engine and front clutch shut down, and power generated by braking the rear wheels travels through the rear clutch and electric motor to the battery pack.
We don't expect there have been too many changes in the system since we wrote that.
What the company would say today is that the 2012 M35 Hybrid will use a V6 engine and rear-wheel drive, with the electric motor operating both as power assist for the gas engine and a generator to help recharged the lithium-manganese battery pack.
The pack is flat, made of laminated cells for improvoed cooling and reduced size and weight, is large enough to provide power for the car to run on its elelctric motor alone "under certain driving conditions," a caveat we take to mean at very low speeds for short periods of time.
Like the rest of the redesigned M lineup, Infiniti's hybrid will borrow styling clues from the Essence concept car Infiniti unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
LEAVE A COMMENT