Most of us know that Nissan has been in the hybrid market for a few years now with offerings in the mid-sized sedan lines.  A not so well kept secret is that this technology is actually on loan from Toyota, so yes that hybrid Altima you just bought is more closely related to a Prius than you may wish.

Recently Nissan has made a very strong effort to break out on it’s own in the new electric craze.  The all electric Nissan-Cube test vehicle (officially named the EV-02) has been roaming the world’s test tracks and city streets for some time now indicating that the factory must be close to making some sort of decision on where to head with all of this.

Back in February news broke that Nissan had in fact filed for a loan from the US Department of Energy through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program.  In just the past few days the loan has been approved for such automakers as Tesla, Ford, and our beloved Nissan, which is set to receive around $1.6 billion US.  Where will this money go?  In the loan, Nissan agrees to spend the money on furthering its “GREEN” production on US soil and on products that it will sell here.  The plan as of now is to begin building an electric vehicle assembly line at the Smyrna, TN plant where Nissan North America is headquartered.  The new line will be capable of pushing out up to 100,000 ‘green-ish’ vehicles a year.  I say green-ish because there is no official announcement as to what will actually be produced here, full on electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids of some sort.

SO, HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO ZCARBLOG???  Nissan plans to release it’s first hybrid (of it’s own original design, no Toyota parts) sometime between 2010 and 2011 most likely in the M35 (M37 by then?) sedan.  The kicker here is that this platform uses the same VQ heart as the Z Car.  What is stopping Nissan from putting this nifty electric hybrid motor under the Z sheet metal?  Would you like better gas mileage in your Z? Of course you do, but would you trade in the signature VQ exhaust note for it?

Please leave me your thoughts, I’m interested to hear what all of you think on this subject.  If you have a long response simply email rob@zcargarage.com with the heading of “HYBRID Z” and he will forward them to me.  Thanks!!!