Keno Kato

摘要

Q How is emissions legislation directing Nissan's product plans? A It's impossible to escape it The key is to set our goals enough in advance of the vehicle launch. By following the regulation information it's quite easy to set a target. Ford has shown that smaller engines can be used in larger vehicles. How important will moving to combustion engines with fewer cylinders be to meeting carbon emissions targets? Three-cylinder engines are one solution, and we've already launched such a unit. Downsizing would also bring benefits immediately in terms of weight reduction. But if we have to introduce different solutions for noise and vibration control then we could end up with heavier engines - there's then no benefit to having three- cylinder engines instead of four-cylinder. But that's part of an ongoing study.