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Nissan Leaf sets new November sales record, Chevy Volt drops again

When you talk to people in the plug-in vehicle industry, one theme you hear repeatedly is that the more plug-in cars that are out there, the better things are for everyone. One reason is that more EVs build a need for more public chargers, and more chargers mean more people see that plugging in is feasible. But there's still something to be said for old-fashioned competition, and in the sales race between the two long-running plug-in vehicles in the US, the Nissan Leaf is resoundingly beating the Chevy Volt for 2014. In fact, it won't be long before the EV's cumulative sales top the PHEV's. But that's a topic for another month. For now, we have the sales results from November. Unsurprisingly, Nissan set another monthly record (that is, the best Leaf sales in any November, the 22nd time in a row we've seen a monthly record) with 2,687 sales last month. That's up 34 percent over last November and up 35 percent year-to-date. Toby Perry, Nissan's director of electric vehicle marketing, said in a statement that, "Our 'Kick Gas' ad campaign and 'No Charge to Charge' launch in Chicago and Atlanta drove an increase in November Leaf sales. Even with gas prices falling across the country, consumers appreciate that the cost of driving a Nissan Leaf is still a fraction of that of a gas-powered car." Over on the Chevy side of the ledger, there were 1,336 Volt sales last month, down 30.4 percent from the 1,920 sold in November 2013. So far this year, Volt sales are down 16.4 percent and Chevy has sold 17,315 Volts in 2014. As we said last month, the Volt slump might be due to people waiting on the new version to make an appearance at the Detroit Auto Show next month before going on sale in the second half of 2015. So far in 2014, Nissan has sold 27,098 Leafs. Look for our detailed post of US green car sales in the near future. Until then, please discuss last month's Leaf and Volt sale in the comments, below. News Source: Nissan, General Motors Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid PHEV ev sales hybrid sales

Ghosn orders Nissan USA to double sales by 2017

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has just one teensy-weensy request for its United States arm: Double your sales by 2017.
"China was not our biggest, I would say, disappointment. It was mainly the United States. We were expecting a strong year in the United States. It didn't happen," Ghosn said, speaking at a conference after announcing Nissan's 2012 fiscal results, Automotive News reports. Because of this, Ghosn has ordered his US executives to iron out the problems that affected new vehicle launches and to strengthen the company's dealer network.
In 2012, Nissan's US sales rose to 1.1 million units - a five-percent increase, and a record, at that. But the company's overall market share fell from 8.2 percent to 7.7 percent, putting the company further away from its goal of having a 10-percent stake overall.

Nissan Pathfinder, Infiniti JX in transmission safety probe

Nissan may be forced to recall 110,000 Pathfinder and Infiniti JX35 crossovers, due to a number of customer complaints. Consumers report suddenly losing power, with repair facilities blaming the issue on faulty transmission cooler line connections. Both the Pathfinder and JX35 use a continuously variable transmission. As of right now, the only vehicles being investigated are from model year 2013.
Nissan has been cooperating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a report from Reuters, and it has developed a fix for the affected vehicles. It's not clear whether this will develop into a full-blown recall, as there have been no known cases of injuries or crashes. But with a potential 110,000 vehicles prone to sudden power loss, a recall seems to be a likely outcome.