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Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi adopts Android infotainment in coup for Google

PARIS — The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi carmaking alliance said on Tuesday it will adopt Alphabet's Google Android operating system, handing a victory to the U.S. tech giant as it pushes for a bigger share of the infotainment market. Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, with combined sales of 10.6 million vehicles last year, said future models will "integrate Google applications and services" including Maps and the voice-commanded Google Assistant. The move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, leans more heavily on Big Tech than large or luxury rival carmakers have hitherto been willing to do. Many fear losing control of customer relationships, data and potentially significant future revenue from connected services. Some smaller manufacturers such as Volvo Cars have decided to embed Android Auto in their vehicles. But the scale of the shift by Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi may cause a broader rethink of costly standalone tech strategies. "Major carmakers earlier were reluctant to do business with Google, but this has now changed," said Jauke de Jong, a research analyst at AFS Group in Amsterdam. "More carmakers could follow suit and partner with Google." Until now, carmakers have largely chosen Linux, Microsoft or QNX software to power infotainment. That yields clunkier platforms they can control, but which offer little scope to add new apps or functionality. Far more than just hooking up a phone The news may spell trouble for certain existing auto-tech suppliers such as mapping specialist TomTom, which counts Renault among its customers. Shares in the Dutch group fell by more than quarter after the announcement. In return for handing Google the infotainment keys, the alliance will bring the full clout of Android's thousands of apps to its brands' lineups — which include a strong contingent of affordably priced, no-frills models for emerging markets. The partnership promises "rich user experiences that are currently available only outside the vehicle or, to a limited extent, by connecting an Android device to supported vehicles," alliance development chief Hadi Zablit said. While many volume carmakers offer infotainment "mirroring" to pair with Apple iPhones or Android smartphones, premium rivals such as BMW and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz are investing heavily in their own operating systems, vocal assistants and connected services.

BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

California has sold 102,440 EVs since Volt, Leaf went on sale in 2010

Last July, Plug In America declared that a Mitsubishi i-MiEV in Alabama was the 100,000th electric vehicle sold in the US. Today, the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative announced that that many EVs have now been sold in California alone. To celebrate the milestone – which was actually 102,440 EVs sold in the Golden State between when the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf were introduced in late 2010 and the end of August 2014 – we spoke with some of the key players in moving the battery-powered metal off of the dealer lots and into driver's driveways. CARB's Mary Nichols drives a Honda Fit EV, and said that in LA, it's no longer "a weird thing." The chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Mary Nichols, took a broad overview. Nichols herself drives a Honda Fit EV, and said that in her home of Los Angeles, that's no longer "a weird thing." She told AutoblogGreen that, "The industry people that we work with are very clear about this, they think the electric cars sell themselves, in terms of their driveability and attractiveness, if you can get a person into one," she said. "The best way to get a person into one is for them to see it somewhere, and that's really what we're celebrating here. As you get to critical mass, and I think 100,000 vehicles is getting to that point, people start looking at these as an option as opposed to something that they walked into the dealership already wanting to get." Given CARB's support of hydrogen vehicles as well as EVs, we had to ask Nichols when she thought H2 would hit the 100,000-vehicle milestone. She declined to answer that question, but did say that, "Hydrogen vehicles are just beginning to be available in the market. They are just being very selectively and even more cautiously introduced than plug-in vehicles because of concerns that customers will have a good experience, and a good experience means that there has to be an adequate supply of fueling stations," she said. "There has been a lot of expression of interest and support and vision in this direction but we are just at the beginning stages, where we were with plug-in vehicles a few years ago. It's going to take a while." If you ask Nissan's Brendan Jones how a state can support a new technology like plug-in vehicles, he will point to how EVs were rolled out in California. Turns out, the company has learned a lot from selling so many Leafs there.