Nissan to launch first 'clean diesel' vehicle next year

TOKYO (ThomsonFinancial) - Nissan Motor Co. on Monday unveiled plans to launch its first 'clean diesel' engine vehicle in Japan next year as part of efforts to catch up with rivals in green motoring.

Japanese automakers are competing to be the first to launch the low pollution diesel engines, which some analysts predict could eventually become more popular than petrol-electric hybrids due to their lower production cost.

Nissan (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) said its new clean diesel engine, which is based on technology developed with French partner Renault (other-otc: RNSDY.PK - news - people ), would be put in the X-Trail sport utility vehicle, which is due to be introduced in Japan in autumn 2008.

The X-Trail will be Nissan's first vehicle to be powered by a clean diesel engine, said company spokesman Yuichi Nakagawa.

Nissan, Japan's third largest automaker, did not release any details on the engine's fuel efficiency.

In December, Nissan announced a five-year 'green program,' including plans to develop its own hybrid as part of a push to catch up with rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. (nyse: TM - news - people ) and Honda Motor Co. (nyse: HMC - news - people ) in energy-saving, low pollution motoring.

Honda said in June that it aimed to introduce vehicles with clean diesel engines 'as soon as possible' in Japan.

Toyota -- which has been the leader in petrol-electric hybrid cars -- plans to outsource production of low-pollution diesel engines to its partner Isuzu Motors Ltd. (other-otc: ISUZY.PK - news - people ) so as not to be left behind, according to Japanese reports.

Nissan also announced Monday that a new clean diesel technology it is developing shows good potential and may be able to meet the US state of California's strict standards for so-called super-ultra-low emission vehicles.

Japan-auto-company-environment-Nissan

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