I found the article to be very interesting.  Thank you for the post.  Is does seem that hybrids and electric powered cars are the wave of the future.  My guess is that petroluem will be a secondary energy source for powering cars by 2025.

I think the entire article is worth reading.  For who do not read the entire article, here are a few more excerpts:

"Nissan plans a "new model" for its first self-developed hybrid, Shinohara says. It is to be launched in the company's fiscal 2010, a 12-month period that spans the final three-quarters of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.
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The battery packs weigh in at about 100 pounds apiece, and were developed by a company jointly controlled by Nissan and Japanese electronics giant NEC. . . . [T]he new hybrid batteries will provide about twice the power density (power per kilogram of weight) of most existing lithium-ion batteries. . . . Unlike most lithium-ion cells that use cathode and anode layers rolled into a cylindrical shape like flashlight batteries, Nissan's are laminated and lay flat, a design that makes them easier to cool — a critical attribute to ensure both longevity and safety in heat-prone lithium-ion batteries. The flat shape also makes it easy to stack cells into compact modules that reduce weight.
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If we were guessing — and we are — we'd anticipate that the first rear-wheel-drive hybrid from Nissan will appear not as a Nissan but as a new Infiniti model, since this is the brand that Nissan is using to promote its RWD platforms.
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All Nissan would tell us at this stage is that the system is more powerful than a standard 306-horsepower 3.5-liter V6, but not as powerful as Nissan's 390-hp 5.0-liter V8.
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As for fuel economy, one engineer whispered something that sounded like Nissan thinks that the new hybrid could get 40 percent better mileage than a standard G35 sedan.

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Nissan didn't design the new hybrid to be a plug-in, saving that honor for its proposed battery-electric car that it also plans to bring out in 2010 in very limited numbers.
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Yet as Shinohara emphasizes, Nissan wants to make sure that in striving to remove the negatives from the automobile, it doesn't shed the positive attributes of performance, enjoyment and utility in the process.
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The presence of this new rear-wheel-drive hybrid system in this 2008 Infiniti G35 Hybrid Prototype is part of this effort [to lower CO2 emissions]. After all, Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn has mandated that every car, no matter how green, must bring in the green as well. And a luxury rear-wheel-drive hybrid can attract deep-pocket buyers in a way that a Prius cannot."