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California has sold 102,440 EVs since Volt, Leaf went on sale in 2010

Last July, Plug In America declared that a Mitsubishi i-MiEV in Alabama was the 100,000th electric vehicle sold in the US. Today, the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative announced that that many EVs have now been sold in California alone. To celebrate the milestone – which was actually 102,440 EVs sold in the Golden State between when the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf were introduced in late 2010 and the end of August 2014 – we spoke with some of the key players in moving the battery-powered metal off of the dealer lots and into driver's driveways. CARB's Mary Nichols drives a Honda Fit EV, and said that in LA, it's no longer "a weird thing." The chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Mary Nichols, took a broad overview. Nichols herself drives a Honda Fit EV, and said that in her home of Los Angeles, that's no longer "a weird thing." She told AutoblogGreen that, "The industry people that we work with are very clear about this, they think the electric cars sell themselves, in terms of their driveability and attractiveness, if you can get a person into one," she said. "The best way to get a person into one is for them to see it somewhere, and that's really what we're celebrating here. As you get to critical mass, and I think 100,000 vehicles is getting to that point, people start looking at these as an option as opposed to something that they walked into the dealership already wanting to get." Given CARB's support of hydrogen vehicles as well as EVs, we had to ask Nichols when she thought H2 would hit the 100,000-vehicle milestone. She declined to answer that question, but did say that, "Hydrogen vehicles are just beginning to be available in the market. They are just being very selectively and even more cautiously introduced than plug-in vehicles because of concerns that customers will have a good experience, and a good experience means that there has to be an adequate supply of fueling stations," she said. "There has been a lot of expression of interest and support and vision in this direction but we are just at the beginning stages, where we were with plug-in vehicles a few years ago. It's going to take a while." If you ask Nissan's Brendan Jones how a state can support a new technology like plug-in vehicles, he will point to how EVs were rolled out in California. Turns out, the company has learned a lot from selling so many Leafs there.

A realistic approach to fixing Mitsubishi

There are going to be a lot of words written about what Nissan needs to do with Mitsubishi in the coming months and years in the interest of turning the brand around. After Nissan's purchase of a controlling stake in the diamond star brand, there's been more interest in Mitsubishi thanks to the potential of platform sharing and plenty of cash from Nissan-Renault to get the juices flowing again. But, while some have been doing their best to advocate for the return of the 3000GT, Evolution, and even the Starion - Many of these posts forget the reality of the market we live in today. As much as we like to look back fondly at the sports coupes of the '90s, a byproduct of the insane cash flows all the Japanese manufacturers had at the time, the reality of today puts a much greater emphasis on what is most-boring; Crossover SUVs, alongside mid-size and compact sedans. We do need to ask a fundamental question, how much Mitsubishi is enough to be able to continue to call the cars Mitsubishis? Aside from slight product revisions and reconfigurations, Mitsubishi (at least in North America) has been largely dependent on the same GS platform and 4B1 engines that date back to their long-time partnership with Chrysler (and Hyundai) in the mid '00s. Admittedly, the chassis and engines have served the company well, underpinning a wide variety of vehicles sold around the world, and seeing quite a few revisions to at least attempt to keep products competitive. But, the GS chassis is old, heavy, and severely out of date - and when matched to the underpowered 4B1 series engines - make for largely uncompetitive offerings in the market. While something like the Outlander Sport is indeed interesting compared to a Honda CR-V, it is by no means the smart choice in the segment. So, going forward, unless Mitsubishi has had a skunkworks of sorts developing their chassis and engine replacements over the past few years, what exactly are they planning to do for their bread-and-butter models? I think the straightforward answer is without a doubt the Nissan North America parts bin. With so many of their models selling well, and for the most part, are reasonably well-reviewed, it would be quite simple to adapt the chassis and powertrain to Mitsubishi's liking to create a high-volume alternative to what is currently available now.

Carlos Ghosn, a year after arrest, still seeks trial date and access to evidence

TOKYO — A year after his arrest, Nissan ex-Chairman Carlos Ghosn remains stuck in Tokyo under stringent bail conditions and without a trial date as he seeks access to a trove of Nissan emails and other evidence to fight charges of financial misconduct. His lawyers have asked a court to grant access to 6,000 pieces of evidence collected from Nissan such as electronic communications, which they say is crucial for a fair trial, showed an Oct. 4 court filing seen by Reuters. The once-feted executive has spent 129 days in detention since his arrest shortly after his private jet touched down at a Tokyo airport on Nov. 19, 2018. He faces four charges — which he denies — including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East. Nissan sacked Ghosn, saying its internal investigations revealed misconduct ranging from understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5 million of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest. An earlier court ruling allowed prosecutors to hand back evidence to Nissan during pretrial wrangling over witnesses and evidence similar to the U. S. discovery process. If prosecutors are "given the freedom to unilaterally delete the collected evidence and return it to relevant parties, this is equivalent to granting the investigative agencies the right to destroy evidence," showed the filing to the Tokyo District Court. The lawyers also asked the court to rescind the earlier ruling, saying some evidence could be erased by Nissan to protect confidential business information. They argued the "ruling deprives Mr. Ghosn of his right to receive a fair public trial by an impartial court," as it enabled prosecutors to view and use the evidence and withhold it from the defense. Prosecutors are not required to hand over all evidence they or the police gather during investigations unless ordered by the court, unlike in the U.S. discovery process where prosecutors and defense lawyers disclose the evidence they intend to present in court. A spokeswoman for the Tokyo prosecutors' office said the office could not comment on individual cases. A Nissan spokeswoman declined to comment. Ghosn's lawyers have also asked the court to dismiss all charges against him, accusing prosecutors of colluding with government officials and Nissan executives to oust him to block any takeover of the automaker by French alliance partner Renault SA, of which Ghosn was also chairman.