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Carlos Ghosn projects Renault-Nissan for #3 position by 2018

As the chief executive of both Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn is one of the most powerful executives in the automotive industry. But at 60, he'll have to retire sooner than later: he's got three and a half years left on his contract at Renault, which mandates retirement by 65. But before his time is up, he intends to leave the Renault-Nissan Alliance among the top three automakers in the world. Currently the combined sales of Nissan, Renault and its various brands (including Dacia, Datsun and Infiniti) make the alliance the fourth largest carmaker globally, trailing behind Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors, but ahead of Hyundai, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Honda. But Ghosn sees the alliance's sales (and global market share) increasing in the next three years. Speaking with Automotive News Europe, Ghosn projected confidently that the alliance will hit the number three spot by 2018 – just three years from now. To get there, Ghosn knows that Nissan and Infiniti will need to increase their combined market share to 10 percent in the United States, growing around 2 to 3 percent each year between now and 2018. The challenge is that much more evident in North America where only half of the alliance participates. But it's not all about America. Ghosn also the Chinese market as equally vital to the alliance's success and that of its constituent automakers, projecting continued growth in China for the foreseeable future. He's also banked heavily on the Russian market, which may have dipped now, but in Ghosn's view is bound to recover. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Renault-Nissan Alliance Nissan Renault renault-nissan alliance

Interest in an Infiniti EV is muted, to say the least

More than a quarter-million people have bought an electric vehicle from the Renault-Nissan Alliance. When it comes to Nissan's Infiniti luxury nameplate, though, there's not a lot of confidence. The Alliance doesn't have much hope that the badge will add to that total anytime soon. So says Emirates 24/7 in its report that Infiniti is planning on opening two showrooms in Abu Dhabi. Models such as the QX80 SUV, the Q70 sedan, and the Q50 will be shown off to those looking to live the high life, Infiniti style. But company executives told the publication that no battery-electric Infiniti models would be in the works until at least the end of the decade? The reason? Lack of demand. It's a far cry from three years ago, when a concept version of the Infiniti LE electric vehicle was shown off at the New York Auto Show. The model boasted 134 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque as well as wireless-charging capabilities. It was about the size of the Infiniti G sedan. At the time, the automaker's executives were estimating that car would hit the market by 2014. Those plans didn't come to fruition, obviously. As for the Alliance, Renault and Nissan celebrated the sale of their 250,000th electric vehicle this past summer. And while the lion's share of those were in the form of the Nissan Leaf, the 250,000th vehicle was actually a Renault Zoe that was bought by a computer engineer in Bordeaux, France. That's a long way from the UAE, and a long way from an Infiniti EV.

Cars with the most reckless drivers are full of surprises

Insurify is a site for comparing auto insurance quotes. Because insurance shoppers need to submit information like the vehicles they're driving and the infractions they've compiled while driving those vehicles, Insurify has quite the database of correlations tying certain models to a habit of breaking certain laws. When the site's data analysts decided to compile a list of the top ten models for reckless driving citations in the decade from 2010 to 2019, the ranking contained a few wild entries. The Dodge Challenger making the countdown will surprise precisely zero people. But the Saturn L200? First, a definition: USLegal.com defines reckless driving as "driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a willful or reckless disregard of consequences." So this list is a caution about particular drivers more than the cars. For a baseline, according to Insurify data, for any random model, 15 out of 10,000 people who drive that model have picked up one citation for reckless driving. Back to that Challenger, then. No shocker for being here, but it's actually number 10, with 44 out of 10,000 Challenger drivers nabbed for a willful disregard of consequences on the road. That's better than the first surprise entry, the Saturn L200, a sedan only on sale for six years, with the least horsepower on the list, and out of production since 2005. The data set put drivers of GM's extraterrestrial sedan at 45 reckless pilots per 10,000 drivers. There are two pickups on the list, the only modern one being the Ram 1500 at eighth, with a rate of 46 in 10,000. Somehow, drivers of the third-best-selling pickup in the U.S. outrun the overwhelming numerical superiority of the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150. The other pickup is the Chevrolet K1500 at number five, with a rate of 56 in 10,000. This is not only the oldest vehicle on the list, it went out of production in 2002, before any other vehicle on the list. Between the trucks, the Volkswagen CC slotted in at seven with 47 in 10,000 reckless driving chits, the Cadillac ATS slipped into sixth with 48 in 10,000.  The top four is a bag of unexpected. The Nissan 370Z is the first hardcore sports car on the list at number four, with 61 in 10,000 Z drivers flaunting their Fairladys in the face of Johnny Law.