1991 Nissan 300zx Turbo Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Nissan Leaf sales get January jump as Chevy Volt trends downward

The cold January sales dip hit both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt last month, but when compared 2014 to 2013's first-month-of-the-year sales totals, one of the two early plug-in vehicles obviously came out on top. The top Leaf market also shifted away from Atlanta for the first time in months. Last year, the Leaf sold just 650 units in January, but it managed to move 1,252 last month, a 92.6-percent increase over 2013 but a big drop from the 2,529 sold in December 2013. Paige Presley over at Nissan told AutoblogGreen that the Leaf has now broken sales records for 11 months straight and that, "we see unique seasonality with some December pull-ahead demand based on federal and state tax incentives." The number one Leaf market also shifted away from Atlanta for the first time in months, moving back to San Francisco. That change could be short-lived. "We had some inventory constraint issues early in the month in Atlanta with end-of-year demand depleting stock," Presley said. "By the time we resolved that, the weather hampered sales." There was not as much good news on the Chevrolet front. Last month, the Volt sold 918 units, down from 1,140 in January 2013 and 2,392 in December 2013. It also marks the first time the Volt has sold in the three-digit range since January 2012, when it sold 603 copies. That string of solid months means that the plug-in hybrid has a roughly 12,000-unit lead over the EV since the two cars brought plug-in vehicles back to the mass market all the way back in December 2010. We will have our full report of January's green car sales up soon.

Renault and Nissan forge deeper alliance

If the automotive industry's current era could be summarized by one trend - from a corporate aspect, anyway - surely it would be conglomeration. But of all the major auto groups that have emerged over the past several years, none have kept themselves at arm's length quite like the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Much like Fiat and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan are presided over by a common chief executive. But whereas Sergio Marchionne's Italian-American alliance has moved swiftly from a transatlantic partnership to a merged company in the span of less than five years, Carlos Ghosn's Franco-Japanese alliance has stood oceans apart since 1999. But now the Renault-Nissan Alliance is following the lead set by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in bridging that distance through several key measures.
For one, Renault and Nissan will make increased use of common platforms, R&D, systems and testing. The two automakers will also cooperate more closely on manufacturing and supply chain management, purchasing and human resources. To manage the increased cooperation, the alliance has appointed several new executive vice presidents from within its ow ranks and a new management committee to be chaired by Ghosn, details about which you can read in the press release below.

Carlos Ghosn's wife appeals to President Trump to help her husband

LONDON — The wife of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn urged U.S. President Donald Trump to raise her husband's case with Japan's prime minister at a summit of world leaders later this month. "I'd like President Trump to speak to Prime Minister Abe about fair conditions, fair trial conditions and to let me speak to my husband and also to respect this presumption of innocence until proven guilty," Beirut-born Carole Ghosn, who has a U.S. passport, told the BBC. Shinzo Abe is due to host other leaders of the Group of 20 economies in the Japanese city of Osaka on June 28-29. In April Carole Ghosn called on the French government to do more to help her husband. Carlos Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, is facing financial misconduct charges and has said he is the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing "backstabbing" former colleagues of conspiring to oust him as Nissan chairman. Carole Ghosn said she had not spoken to her husband since he was re-arrested on April 4 before being released on bail three weeks later. "They told him one of the bail conditions, the restrictions, is he isn't allowed to speak to me or talk to me, which I find inhumane," she said. "All of this could have been dealt with internally within the company. This didn't need to go this far and on top of it my husband is innocent and time will prove the truth." (Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Louise Heavens) Government/Legal Mitsubishi Nissan Renault