YOKOHAMA, Japan - Nissan Motor Co will launch a plug-in hybrid vehicle developed in-house in 2015 as part of its new five-year environmental plan, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on Monday.

 

Japan's No.2 automaker also repeated its goal of selling a cumulative 1.5 million battery electric vehicles by the business year to end-March 2017 with alliance partner Renault SA to lead the zero-emissions segment.

 

Nissan said it would spend 70 percent of its investments in advanced research and development on environmental technologies, totaling around 300 billion yen ($3.94 billion) over the same period.

 

As emissions and mileage regulations grow stricter around the world, Nissan and Renault are also sharing development costs with equity partner Daimler AG, with plans to work on fuel-cell vehicles together to complement battery EVs in the zero-emission field.

 

"When you combine the research and development budgets and the investments of these three companies you have the largest one in the industry," Ghosn told a news conference. "Nobody matches us."

 

Nissan will aim for a 35 percent improvement in fuel economy averaged across its fleet in Japan, China, Europe and the United States compared with 2005 levels by launching new technologies, including a front-wheel drive hybrid model, it said.

 

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

 

Copyright 2011  Reuters Environmental Online Report