Playing catchup in green technology, Nissan opens new resortlike tech center

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Nissan introduced a hybrid last year, but now licenses the technology from Toyota. Nissan is working on an original hybrid, set to be introduced by 2010, using what it says is a superior kind of battery technology -- the lithium-ion battery that's common in gadgets such as laptops and cell phones but has yet to be fully adapted to the more rigorous demands of a car engine.

Hybrids now available from Toyota and Honda use nickel-metal hydride batteries, although all major automakers, including General Motors, are working on lithium-ion batteries for vehicles.

Breakthroughs may be exactly what Nissan needs if it hopes to narrow the gap in hybrids with industry leaders like Toyota and Honda, analysts say.

Although hybrid sales are still a fraction of standard models, brand image tends to get a nice lift from such technology. Sales of Toyota hybrids and Honda small cars have jumped in the U.S. and other overseas markets lately because of soaring gas prices.

Nissan Senior Vice President Minoru Shinohara said Nissan wasn't preoccupied with what rivals may be doing but it was focused on its own goals, such as perfecting its original hybrid system that he said will outperform the competition.

Nissan is also developing a ''three-liter car'' capable of traveling 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, on just three liters -- or about three quarts -- of gasoline. The company hopes to unveil a new model in Japan in 2010.

''We have been preparing now for several years, and we are ready with several key kinds of advanced technology,'' Shinohara said.