Nissan Opens Technology Center

Nissan Motors CEO Carlos Ghosn makes a speech during an opening ceremony of Nissan's new Advanced Technology Center in Atsugi city, Kanagawa, Japan, Tuesday, May 15, 2007. Nissan is under no pressure to find a new alliance partner and is not in talks with anybody despite news that a private equity firm will buy U.S.-based automaker Chrysler, Ghosn said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara) (Katsumi Kasahara - AP)

ATSUGI, Japan -- At Nissan's new complex for technology, experimental car batteries were sitting in freezing temperatures, getting cooked in giant metal boxes and being rattled to simulate driving _ part of the automaker's efforts to catch up in the race to develop green vehicles.

The lithium-ion batteries, seen as advantageous because of their smaller size compared to existing systems, were being tested to withstand extreme temperatures at the center that opened Tuesday in Atsugi, just west of Tokyo.

The new facility underlines Nissan Motor Co.'s determination to develop environmental and safety technologies that are increasingly critical for riding out the tough competition in the auto industry.

"Whether products with technology that appeals to consumers can be offered in a timely manner will determine the winners and the losers," Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said in Japanese at the opening of the Advanced Technology Center.

Nissan officials acknowledge the near-collapse the company went through before its stunning revival under a 1999 alliance with Renault SA of France meant it could not invest in technology as much as they would have liked.

But for the past several years, Nissan has been investing more in developing new technologies, they said.

Ghosn told reporters that Nissan was under no pressure to find a new alliance partner, although his company had taken part in alliance talks with General Motors Corp. that GM eventually rejected.

"We're not talking with anybody," Ghosn said. "I don't think it's the right timing today."

He also said he was satisfied with the scale of the Nissan-Renault partnership, and denied expanding the alliance would be a must for gaining an edge in technology because Nissan was developing its own technology.

Surrounded by luscious green hills, the towering center has a dramatically cascading glass roof that allows engineers to share their collaborative work in a spacious setting. It will house 2,000 employees, working on everything from zero-emission electric vehicles to "smart cars" that help avoid collisions.

Some analysts say Japan's No. 3 automaker has fallen behind rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in developing gas-and-electric hybrid cars and other technologies that reduce gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Yasuaki Iwamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo, says investing in the Nissan Advanced Technology Center is a step in the right direction for Nissan.