Nissan’s new electric car and hybrid

This is a test version of Nissan’s new electric car and it’s in the popular Nissan Cube design. Business Week was able to test drive both the new electric and hybrid near Tokyo.

They found the electric Cube nimble and quick on the test track but the batteries are under the rear seats and weigh around 300kg.This made the rear seats higher than they should be and gave passengers a more uncomfortable ride.

Nissan’s electric car is due to launch in 2010, in the United States and Japan. Nissan say that the car will be different to any current model and their lithium-ion batteries offer significantly improved performance and are half the weight.

Nissan hope that the improved performance over current nickel metal hydride cells will help make them the leader in hybrids and electric vehicles.

The new Nissan hybrid answers many questions but it also raises many questions as well, read the hands-on review from Business Week here.

You can read other news about hybrid cars here.