Hybrid technology is still not beneficial to consumers or to automakers, a top Nissan executive said Thursday. “Hybrids today are not a very viable economic proposition. It’s still a loss-making proposition and we’ll see,” said Dominique Thormann, Nissan North America’s senior vice president for administration and finance.
“People don’t want to pay more for a hybrid. They get a tax credit for it but they don’t want to pay the price for the cost of the hybrid,” he said. Thormann said Nissan introduced the Altima hybrid to comply with California’s partial zero emissions vehicle standards.
“For these technologies to work, there has to be a customer benefit. Somewhere there’s got to be a reason why people will go towards that technology,” he said. Thormann’s comments echo those of Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who said he feels it’s still too early for hybrids to go mass-market.
