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When public charging fails you and your EV

Think that owning and driving a plug-in vehicle in green-centric San Francisco is easy? You should probably think again. That's because a lot of other residents already have the same idea, and there aren't enough charging stations to keep up. A classic First World problem, for sure, but a problem nevertheless for at least one EV driver. A Wired reporter shares the experience test-driving a Nissan Leaf for a couple of days. The catch is that, like many of the city's residents, he's an apartment-dweller without a dedicated parking spot, meaning that he's at the mercy of publicly-accessible station availability. And that infrastructure, he writes, is "woefully inadequate" to handle the current crop of plug-in vehicle drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area The crux is that, while Nissan Leaf's navigation systems can direct a driver to the nearest stations, they neither say if the stations are occupied or if they're open to the public. The former issue is a major one because, unlike gas stations, a plug-in vehicle charging station can be occupied for hours instead of minutes. That means plug-in vehicle drivers without overnight charging access will likely constantly be on the hunt for unoccupied charging stations in the area until more stations are deployed. Read the details of Alex Davies' trying times here. Featured Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf View 55 Photos News Source: WiredImage Credit: mayorgavinnewsom/Flickr Green Nissan Electric San Francisco

Nissan GT-R LM hobbled by 'very minor' issue during Sebring test

We're always going to have a soft spot for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It marks the start of the endurance racing season, after all. But it's the endurance racing circus' three-hour drive south for the annual to-do at Sebring International Raceway that really sets our hearts aflutter. That's because Sebring is generally used by the biggest teams as a tune-up for June's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Floridian race might only be half as long, but the sheer brutality of the racing surface makes it a great test of a racer's durability, hence why it's a popular stop on the way to France. As it turns out, it was the track's roughness that was the reason Nissan decided to piggyback on one of Audi's tests at the south Florida circuit, Autosport reports. But an issue "to do with the engine mounting" on the front-engined GT-R LM racer sidelined the team. "It was actually a very minor thing, but we just don't have a spare here," Technical Director Ben Bowlby told Autosport. "We've spent a lot of time at Austin, which is very smooth, so we wanted to come to a particularly harsh environment like Sebring." While it seems rather silly to test somewhere in an attempt to "accelerate the durability cycle" without packing a full complement of spares, the rough surface of Sebring has a tendency to wreak havoc with even the most reliable of parts. Nissan did manage to run a total of 68 laps over the course of two days, with drivers Marc Gene and Olivier Pla at the wheel. At present, Nissan won't be running the GT-R LM in the actual 12 Hours of Sebring – it's first race outing will instead be at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, running next month. Related Video:

Nissan recalls over 120,000 Altimas due to... spare tire inflation?!

A pressure regulator that over- or underinflated spare tires for five days earlier this year has led to a recall of 123,308 units of the 2013 Nissan Altima. Sedans that were manufactured from March 21-26 are those possibly affected by the temporary tire snafu, the recall for which will begin on May 3.
Those notified of the issue can take their sedans to their local Nissan dealer, who will check the tire pressure and correct it if necessary, but we imagine owners can probably just whip out a tire gauge to check and adjust the inflation for themselves. Should you need it, there's an official notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration below with a few more details.