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Chevy City Express headed for dealers

With competition coming from the Ford Transit Connect, it's high time Chevrolet got in on the compact hauling action and took the fight to its cross-town rival... and it's doing so with a little help from Nissan. The Chevy City Express, a badge-engineered Nissan NV200, is now arriving at dealers, giving Bowtie fans a counter to Dearborn's compact van.
"Our existing customers will love getting behind the wheel of the City Express when it's at their Chevrolet dealership," Ed Peper, GM's vice president of fleet and commercial vehicles said in a statement. "But we're most looking forward to giving potential new customers the opportunity to experience one of many Chevrolet commercial vehicles that best fit their needs."
Prices for the 2015 City Express start at $22,950. Scroll down for the official announcement from Chevrolet.

Mitsubishi, Nissan will build mini EV together

That minicar project that erstwhile competitors Nissan and Mitsubishi launched about four years ago is about to go a little more maxi. NMKV Co., the joint venture established in June 2011 by the two Japanese automakers to make minicars, is going to get more resources specifically to ease a move into the electric-vehicle sector. Specifically, Nissan, which makes the all-electric Leaf, is going to have a bigger role in the testing, design, and development of the partnership's mini EVs. A memorandum of understand between Nissan and Mitsubishi, maker of the i-MiEV, is in the works. So far, the joint-venture has sold about 500,000 gas-powered three-cylinder compact vehicles under the two automotive brands, so it must be doing something right. The first Nissan Dayz and the Mitsubishi eK Wagon models started production in 2013. Sales of the Nissan Dayz Roox and Mitsubishi eK Space, which went the higher-roof route, began early last year. Nissan and Mitsubishi started making noise about this last summer, when word came out that the little EV may be priced at less than $15,000 in Japan, quite a bit cheaper than either the Leaf or the i-MiEV over there. As with the current models, the future minicar variants will be produced at Mitsubishi's Mizushima factory in Japan. So far, the partnership would only say that details about NMKV's next-generation mini EV will be released "at a later time," so specifics like range and other performance measures will have to wait. Until then, you can take a look at NMKV's press release below. Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors and NMKV reach agreement on planning and development of next-generation minicars Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, and their joint venture NMKV Co., Ltd. today reached an agreement to continue their joint project regarding development of the next generation of current minicar models. The three companies will soon sign a memorandum of understanding. The companies aim to develop more competitive products by optimizing resource allocation and their respective roles and responsibilities. Nissan will be more deeply involved in development operations, such as design development and testing. In addition to its product planning and project development roles, NMKV will strengthen its management capabilities by adding a new department to enhance collaboration with engineering and manufacturing functions. Vehicle production is planned to continue at Mitsubishi's Mizushima Plant.

Nissan GT-R and Jaguar F-Type meet for time trial battle [w/poll]

It seems that the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R is the performance coupe du jour. First, Motor Trend challenged it against a Porsche 911 on video to see how it fared. Now, Autocar in the UK is pitting the Jag against the latest iteration of the Nissan GT-R around a small course in a time trial battle.
On paper, it certainly looks like the F-Type Coupe is the clear winner. The two performance cars boast the same 542 horsepower (at least by UK specs), but the Jaguar does it with more torque, less weight and an eight-speed gearbox, compared to the six-speed in the GT-R. That seems like an automatic recipe for victory. However, the Nissan claims a faster sprint to 62 miles per hour and all-wheel drive. Nobody wants to watch a video of the new car running away into the sunset, and once the two of them make it to the track, the playing field appears much more level.
So which would you rather have? Keep in mind, that while the GT-R is cheaper than the F-Type Coupe R by a few thousand pounds in the UK, in the US a base R starts at $99,000, and the Nissan has a base price of $101,770. Scroll down to watch the video, and then make your choice in the poll, below.