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Nissan Altima takes first V8 Supercars win

The V8 Supercars championship used to be strictly a contest between Holden and Ford. But just as BMW crashed the Audi and Mercedes party in DTM, so has Nissan (and for that matter, Mercedes) pushed past the door into Australia's popular touring car series. And like BMW, Nissan hasn't waited long before notching its first victory.
Nissan claimed the checkered flag this weekend in the first of three races at Winton, the ninth stop on the calendar. And what a spectacular win it was: not only did Nissan take the checkered flag, they finished one-two. James Moffat drove his Altima to the finish line just ahead of teammate Michael Caruso. It was Caruso who lead the first half of the race after qualifying just behind defending champion (and current points leader) Jamie Whincup, who suffered a gearbox malfunction and retired on only the ninth lap.
Of course that's just one race out of 27 so far and 37 scheduled this season, so that won't be elevating Nissan or any of its drivers to the lead the same way that BMW did upon its return last season to DTM, but it's a good start and a cause to celebrate for Nissan. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) and James Courtney (Holden) won the following two rounds at Winton as Jamie Whincup (Holden) leads Will Davison (Ford) in the standings.

Renault taking Alpine endurance racing, enters 24 Hours of Le Mans

Renault isn't letting up with the return of its Alpine brand. After announcing a partnership with Caterham to bring a new Alpine to market by 2015 (now expected by 2016), the French firm has announced it is taking Alpine racing again in the European Le Mans Series this year - and that includes The 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It has been 35 years since Alpine last competed in Le Mans, when it won the race outright and dropped the mic as it left the pits, never to return. Before that, in the 11 years it campaigned in the most famous endurance race on the planet from 1963 to 1978, it took seven class wins.
Caterham won't be involved with the race team, however; that will be an effort spearheaded by the Signatech-Nissan team that has been running GT Academy winners in LMS racing. Alpine is preparing an LMP2 chassis that will get a 500-horsepower Nissan engine for this year's championship, with the first two named drivers being Nelson Panciatici (above right) and Pierre Ragues (above left). The third driver for Le Mans will be announced later this month when the racer is launched at the Le Castellet race track in southern France.

Is 120 miles just about perfect for EV range?

When it comes to battery-electric vehicles, our friend Brad Berman over at Plug In Cars says 40 miles makes all the difference in the world. That's the approximate difference in single-charge range between the battery-electric version of the Toyota RAV4 and the Nissan Leaf. It's also the difference between the appearance or disappearance of range anxiety. The 50-percent battery increase has zapped any lingering range anxiety, Berman writes. The RAV4 EV possesses a 40-kilowatt-hour pack, compared to the 24-kWh pack in the Leaf. After factoring in differences in size, weight and other issues, that means the compact SUV gets about 120 miles on a single charge in realistic driving conditions, compared to about 80 miles in the Leaf. "The 50 percent increase in battery size from Leaf to RAV has zapped any lingering range anxiety," Berman writes. His observations further feed the notion that drivers need substantial backup juice in order to feel comfortable driving EVs. Late last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), along with the Consumers Union estimated that about 42 percent of US households could drive plug-in vehicles with "little or no change" in their driving habits, and that almost 70 percent of US commuters drive fewer than 60 miles per weekday. That would imply that a substantial swath of the country should be comfortable using a car like the Leaf as their daily driver - with first-quarter Leaf sales jumping 46 percent from a year before, more Americans certainly are. Still, the implication here is that EV sales will continue to be on the margins until an automaker steps up battery capabilities to 120 or so miles while keeping the price in the $30,000 range. Think that's a reasonable goal to shoot for?