Say Good-Bye to the Altima Hybrid

So, that's it for the Nissan Altima Hybrid.  After four years of leasing the hybrid technology from Toyota, Nissan has decided to drop the Altima Hybrid for next year.  A bad sign for current owners, but may be a good sign for Nissan and hybrid technology in the future.

(Source: Kicking Tires)

Nissan has designed their own hybrid technology, it's just going into the Infiniti line-up.  They also want to concentrate on their EV Leaf for now.  In other words, their halo car is the Leaf and there's no reason to point to the Altima Hybrid as their version of green  anymore.

Altima Hybrid sales have never risen very far, as Nissan never pushed it.  Nissan only sold it in 10 states.  They never really tried to differentiate themselves.  How could they since they were using Toyota hybrid technology?  So the history books will point to the Altima Hybrid experiment as a cash losing proposition.  A halo car that wasn't so angelic.

Maybe the Leaf and it's EV successors will turn out better.  It's no doubt Ghosn and company are hoping so.