Nissan used San Francisco as the venue to show off a prototype of the 2007 Altima Hybrid, a hybrid vehicle based on the Altima mid-size sedan. Nissan plans to launch the car in 2006 for the US market.

Nissan partnered with archrival Toyota for the hybrid system components, combining those with Nissan’s own four-cylinder gasoline engine technology.

In September 2002, Nissan agreed with Toyota to produce 100,000 hybrid vehicles within a five-year period. This Altima is the first prototype representing that effort.

Nissan continues to focus on developing diesel engine technologies and continuing the R&D of fuel cell vehicles for the future.

The Toyota partnership makes a great deal of sense; partnerning with Toyota fills a specific market need while allowing Nissan to concentrate on other areas of powertrain expertise and other types of vehicles. It is a bit analogous to a computer sytems vendor such as HP building systems using Intel chips rather than its own.