Leather Sunroof One Owner Low Miles Sunroof Bose Heated Seats on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Recharge Wrap-up: Nissan Leaf in Puerto Rico, BMW i3 REx tax-free in NJ, BC2BC cancelled [UPDATE]

*UPDATE: Nissan has released a video of the Leaf in Puerto Rico, so we've embedded it below. Envia Systems will develop battery technology for United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), a subsidiary of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). The $7.7 million contract, co-funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), involves a 36-month development program focusing on high-energy cathode and anode material for lithium-ion batteries and pouch cells for electric vehicles. The goal, of course, is to create better energy storage for less money in an effort to make commercial EVs more efficient and affordable. For the DOE, this also equates to energy security, energy independence and national security. Read more in the press release at the bottom of the page. The US and China have agreed to work together more closely on EVs, energy and climate issues. US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz went to Beijing for the sixth US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to meet with leaders. While there, Moniz and Wu Xinxiong of China's National Energy Administration (NEA) signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the DOE and NEA to share information regarding oil reserves. The groups will meet yearly to learn more about how each other manages petroleum stockpiles and policy. Moniz also met with Minister Miao Wei of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and signed an MOU to cooperate on electric vehicles and "related technologies," including the "inter-operability of electric vehicles." Read more at the Energy Department website. August's BC2BC all-electric vehicle rally, billed as the largest gathering of electric vehicles, has been cancelled. The event, which was to include a drive up the entire coast from Mexico to British Columbia with smaller events along the route, failed to bring in the needed sponsorship to hold the rally for its third year. A Facebook post from organizer Tony Williams also cited loss of venue and lack of support from automakers - "particularly Nissan and Tesla" - as hardships. The event was scheduled to take place August 9 through 17, with only battery electric vehicles invited to take part - no plug-in hybrids or range-extended vehicles. Williams said he'd only try a similar event in the future if sponsorship were provided up front. Read more at Green Car Reports. The Nissan Leaf will finally go on sale in Puerto Rico.

Are you the next Nissan Frontier?

A reader of the Phillippine site Autoindustriya.com sent in what appear to be naked spy photos of the pickup that Nissan recently teased first in photo then in video. The shots, one taken from the front and one from the back, have been found on the Nissan Navara Club Thailand forum. The details in the two photos, one from the front and one from the back, match up with the details we can make out from the teaser video, lending credence to the idea that this is indeed the next Nissan Navara, which is essentially the Frontier in overseas markets. Nissan US has reportedly disavowed this as our next Frontier, though; the mysterious photo on Twitter was put there by Nissan Thailand, supposedly the location of these two trucks.
The only other detail submitted with the images is that there's a 2.5-liter turbodiesel under the hood putting out 187 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque, running through either a seven-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual. The reveal is scheduled for June 11, which is when we should know a lot more about the Navara and how much it is or isn't indicative of what we'll get with the next Frontier, a vehicle we're still not expecting for some time.

Nismo mashes it up with Sentra 370Z and Altima GT-R

Nismo was a tuning division once content (or required) to restrict itself to just one or two models at a time, but these days Nissan is taking the gloves off and allowing its motorsport department to tune just about everything's it's got.
Now in its thirtieth year, Nismo tunes versions of the GT-R, 370Z, Juke and Versa Note, and will soon be working its magic on the Sentra and European-market Qashqai and Pulsar. And that's not even taking into account its considerable racing programs. At this rate, Nismo is going to run out of vehicles to tune pretty quickly, so what has it done? Invent new ones!
No, we're afraid that Nissan is not letting its Nismo division produce its own stand-alone product, but it has released two sets of amusing renderings combining two vehicles into one. One depicts a GT-R crossed with a Teana sedan (better known in these parts at the Altima), while the other crosses a Sentra with a 370Z.