It's Hip to be Cube

Forget being square. Squares are so two-dimensional. Enter the Cube. Nissan Cube, that is.

Before there was the Scion xB, the Nissan Cube stretched the envelope by being smart about space efficiency. And while I already found out from my company that the next generation Cube was coming to the U.S., I can at least make a posting about it since Nissan's global design director has spilled the beans to LA Times.

What makes the Cube very Granola is that it already gets pretty decent fuel economy without a complicated two-mode hybrid system. Imagine, then, a Cube with a hybrid system similar to a Prius. Where the Scion xB has left a void, I'm guessing the Nissan Cube is more than capable of filling it. The xB has grown, or rather bloated, up to where it is today in its 2.4-liter grandeur. It is no longer peppy and miserly with fuel, as the first generation was.

Nissan has a hybrid in the States, and yet most people don't know about it. The Altima Hybrid is also limited to select states, namely California, New York, and a handful of others. Even less know that the hybrid system was licensed from Toyota, since Nissan is still developing their own hardware. However, Nissan will likely have its own eleectric/gas hybrid by 2010, perhaps mated to a vehicle like the Cube. Small on the outside, roomy inside, fuel efficient, and modestly chic-looking? Sign this urban bitch up.

LA gas prices have stabilized somewhat at $3.15/gallon, but I'm guessing that this is only a brief reprieve from what I imagine to be a continued climb to $4/gallon and beyond. Time to reconsider that Prius.