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Nissan will expand free* charging incentive to 25 Leaf markets

Nissan has proof that giving away a bit of electricity makes buying a new Leaf all the more enticing. Thanks to a deal that offers free charging to some Leaf owners in Texas, one dealer there claims his Leaf sales have tripled. We don't see national sales climbing quite that high starting July 1 2014, but an announcement made today at the New York Auto Show will likely give the EV a boost. New Leaf buyers will get to charge for free at public chargers for two years. Within limits: a max of 30 minutes at CHAdeMO and an hour at Level 2 stations. Nissan will expand its "No Charge to Charge" promotion to at least 25 markets across the US. The deal means that new Leaf buyers will get to charge for free at public chargers that accept the new EZ-Charge card, within limits. That means a maximum of 30 minutes at CHAdeMO DC fast chargers and just one hour at Level 2 stations, Brendan Jones, director of Nissan EV infrastructure strategy and development, told AutoblogGreen. This should be plenty of time, Jones said, since the average Leaf driver comes to a CHAdeMO station with 35-40 percent state-of-charge on the battery and the average time they stay is around 16-17 minutes. A half hour is fine at a fast charger, since the battery will get to 80 percent full within that time, but we're less impressed with the one-hour limit at a Level 2 station, since that will only put maybe 20 miles into the battery. The EZ-Charge card is compatible with four of "the leading EV charging networks," which here means ChargePoint, Blink, AeroVironment and NRG eVgo. Nissan says the 25 markets make up over 80 percent of all the US Leaf sales. Anyone who buys a new Leaf in one of the specified markets - or bought one on or after April 1 of this year - will get the free-to-use EZ-Charge card (others can still get the card, which means only carrying one charger company fob instead of four). The promotion starts July 1 in 10 markets (San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Washington, DC) and then expands to the next 15 by the end of June, 2015. Nissan would not specify which markets these will be, but they will be where the Leaf is selling well and there are DC fast chargers. That means, we suspect, places like Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Nissan Kicks concept debuts in Sao Paulo [w/videos]

The Sao Paulo Motor Show only comes around once every other year, and Nissan - an automaker deeply vested in the Latin American market - isn't missing out on the opportunity to showcase a new crossover concept.
Called the Kicks concept, the crossover seems to slot in size-wise in between the Juke and the Rogue. Nissan isn't saying much about it, though, aside from its having drawn its inspiration from Brazil with a "satin titanium" finish and bright orange trim - the former taking its cues from Sao Paulo and the latter from Rio.
While emphasizing its Brazilian character, Nissan also stresses that the concept's creation was "a product of global collaboration." So while it isn't saying anything about production feasibility, it is seemingly suggesting that if it were put into production - and as we stated previously, we think it just might - it could stand to be a global model and not confined strictly to South America.

2013 Nissan Pathfinder: January 2013

We've now had our long-term 2013 Nissan Pathfinder for about a month, and some impressions are starting to solidify, while others remain contentious among the team. Most notable among those contentious items is our Pathfinder's paint color, which was chosen by vote among the Autoblog team.
Dubbed Mocha Stone, it beat out Cayenne Red by a single vote. I was a Mocha Stone supporter and like it even more in person than on Nissan's configurator. It's a mature choice that can be comfortably placed in the grouping of silver, white and gray tones buyers routinely choose most often over all the colors of the rainbow offered on cars these days for the sake of attention. Staunch opponents of Mocha Stone on the team remain unswayed. Democracy is a difficult process, people.