Sv - Sport Pkg - Fast - Paddle Shift - Tints - Alloy Wheels - Low Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Infiniti's new Design Director is American Alfonso Albaisa

The man responsible for creating the sleek 2010 Nissan Ellure Concept you see above is now the design director for Infiniti. Alfonso Albaisa (shown at right) has been a member of the Nissan design team for 25 years, but was recently promoted to executive design director for the Infiniti brand.
His past roles at Nissan have included design director for Nissan from 2004 to 2007, vice president of Nissan Design Europe from 2007 to 2011, vice president of Nissan Design America in 2011 and, most recently, he held the title of Nissan's global design director. Aside from Ellure, Albaisa was also responsible for designing the 2012 Nissan Xtrem Concept, "key strategic production vehicles soon to be launched" and he's even contributed to a handful of Infiniti designs. Scroll down for the official press release.

Nissan ZEOD RC finds nothing but trouble at 2014 Le Mans

Audi came away a big winner at this year's Le Mans competition, but Nissan has at least one thing to celebrate. The Pyrrhic victory apparently presages Nissan giving up on the gas-electric race car for Le Mans 2015. Before the race this weekend, the prototype ZEOD RC hybrid race car was doing quite well. In fact, given the way things turned out, Nissan's keen to mention that team engineers managed to get the car to complete a lap on electric power and hit a target speed of 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour) on the Mulsanne Straight during testing. ZEOD RC stands for Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car. "The race was obviously very disappointing" – Wolfgang Reip Things didn't go so well once the real race started. The problem for the Deltawing-esque prototype – which is powered by a 1.5-liter gas ending putting out 400 horsepower and a pair of 110-kW electric motors – was that something broke in the transmission after just 23 minutes and five laps. Driver Wolfgang Reip put his best spin on the hybrid's collapse: "The race was obviously very disappointing but having got a taste of Le Mans now, I can't wait to get back." If Reip does return with Nissan, it will likely be in a more traditional Le Mons racer. The ZEOD RC was part of the LM P2 class, but Nissan says that, "For Le Mans 2015, Nissan will return to the LM P1 class." You can watch the full warm-up electric lap in a video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Nissan ZEOD RC heroic electric lap followed by heartbreak Amazing morning warm-up result after all-nighter by crew "New tech" car halted by "old tech" issue Nissan breaks new ground in electric vehicles LE MANS, France – Nissan's assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours may have ended early, but the revolutionary Nissan ZEOD RC electric prototype still leaves Le Mans having reached its historic goals of hitting 300 km/h on the Mulsanne Straight and recording a complete lap of Le Mans on electric power only. The unique prototype – which features both internal combustion and electric power sources – reached its first target during Thursday night qualifying when Satoshi Motoyama exceeded 300 km/h before the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Nissan's other key goal was to complete an entire 8.5-mile lap of Le Mans on pure electric power. GT Academy winner Wolfgang Reip was at the wheel when the team achieved this goal during the morning warm-up.

Nissan Leaf ends 2013 with best sales month ever, but can't catch Chevy Volt

Nissan and Chevrolet both ended 2013 with solid sales figures for their plug-in vehicles, the first two that were released (all the way back at the end of 2010) from major automakers. As has been the story for most of 2013, December sales for the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt were roughly the same. When we left the year-to-date running tally at the end of November, the Volt was at 20,702, while the Leaf was at 20,080. As you can tell from the image above (if you've been noticing the trend in these EV sales monthly flash-reports), the Leaf outsold the Volt, but was it enough to put the Nissan on top for the year? In 2013, Nissan sold 22,610 Leafs, more than twice as many as in 2012. Almost. The Leaf made a valiant attempt, and did have its best month ever with 2,529 units sold. That means that for 2013, Nissan moved a total of 22,610 Leafs, more than twice as many as in 2012 (that year, Nissan sold only 9,819 Leafs in the US) and actually more than 2012 and 2011 Leaf sales combined (which was 19,493). Nissan continues to see the effects of its price drop and expanded sales areas, with Georgia rapidly becoming a Leaf hotbed. Nissan's Paige Presley said that Atlanta was once again the Leaf's number one market and that, "sales are expanding deeper into Georgia markets such as Macon and Columbus." The Volt saw a boost upwards from a November slump and sold 2,392 units in December. That puts the plug-in hybrid's annual total at 23,094, just down from the 23,461 sold in 2012. For all of 2013, though, the Volt outsold the Leaf by 484 vehicles. In a competition like this, we'll count that as a win for both sides. We will our more detailed monthly green car sales report, which covers more of the fuel efficient vehicles on the market, up soon. News Source: GM, Nissan Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid PHEV ev sales hybrid sales