Nissan cars to drive ecology home to drivers

Bill Bosley, Vice President and General Manager of Nissan North America, introduces the 2008 Nissan Sentra SE-R (L) and the 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe at the Los Angeles Auto Show November 29, 2006. If pushing the pedal makes the environmentalist in you cringe, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it will equip all new cars with a device that could help improve fuel efficiency.

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - If pushing the pedal makes the environmentalist in you cringe, Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it will equip all new cars with a device that could help improve fuel efficiency.

When the accelerator is pressed, a meter shows the driver by how much fuel consumption is rising, the nation's third-biggest carmaker said. The device could improve fuel efficiency by an average 10 percent, it added.

"When people have a fuel-efficiency meter on their cars, they tend to drive more carefully, trying to achieve good readings," said Nissan spokeswoman Haruko Wada.

She said the automaker's move to make the device a standard feature on all of its cars is part of efforts to cut CO2 emissions and promote its environmental technologies.

The fuel-efficiency meter has been installed in some Nissan cars since 2006, including Skyline sports cars in Japan and Altima sedans in North America, Wada said.