Police Seizure** 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor on 2040-cars

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Nissan itself will be indicted alongside Ghosn, report says

Prosecutors in Tokyo are expected to file charges against Nissan itself alongside an expected indictment against former Chairman Carlos Ghosn as part of the ongoing financial misconduct case. That's according to a report from Japan's Nikkei business daily, which does not identify its sources. Charges are also likely against Greg Kelly, a member of Nissan's board of directors who was taken into custody with Ghosn Nov. 19 after Japanese authorities questioned the former chairman aboard a corporate jet at the Tokyo Haneda airport. Monday is the deadline when prosecutors must either indict the two executives, release them or arrest them on new allegations. Both men are accused of under-reporting salaries in five annual reports that stretch through the fiscal year that ended in March 2015. The Nikkei says they'll also be arrested on new allegations of misstating financial information for the subsequent three business years. Nissan would be charged for not preventing the alleged crime. Both men have reportedly denied the allegations. In response to the Nikkei report, a spokesman for Nissan told Automotive News the company had "identified serious misconduct related to the reporting of Mr. Ghosn's compensation" and was cooperating with investors. The turmoil over Ghosn prompted the automaker to scrap plans to unveil a long-awaited longer-range Leaf electric car at the L.A. Auto Show last week. Ghosn is accused of conspiring to understate his income by about half the 10 billion yen (about $88 million) over the period. Reports say the issue relates to deferred compensation that Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa reportedly signed off on but may not have understood. The company didn't report the deferred compensation in Japanese securities filings as it is required, since the money is considered a future liability against the company. Automotive News cites an unnamed source who says Nissan has identified some $80 million in unreported deferred compensation promised to Ghosn. Nissan's board voted Nov. 22 to oust him as chairman, and Mitsubishi followed suit days later. Ghosn remains the CEO and chairman of Renault, however. Under Ghosn's guidance, Nissan and Renault joined forces in 1999 when Nissan was teetering toward bankruptcy. Mitsubishi joined on in 2016, with all three members able to jointly develop products and control costs. He had reportedly been pushing for deeper ties, including a possible merger between Nissan and Renault at the urging of the French government.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV sales reach 33,000 worldwide

It can be difficult to see from the US, where the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid is not yet available, but the all-wheel drive SUV is a big hit in Europe and Japan. In fact, we learned at the Plug In 2014 Conference in San Jose, CA this week that Mitsubishi has sold over 33,000 copies of the PHEV around the world. The breakdown is that Mitsubishi has delivered 15,000 units in Japan and 18,000 in Europe. Fuminori Kojima, Mitsubishi Motors North America's senior manager of incentives, told AutoblogGreen that the country with the highest sales rate in Europe is Holland, with about 6,000 units sold that thanks in part to generous incentives for plug-in hybrids there. The Euro-spec version on hand in San Jose has three regen levels (the normal D mode, plus B1 and B2). We got to take a spin around the block, but the battery was mostly depleted (it was a popular attraction in the Ride & Drive) and so we were driving on gas. In the gallery from Plug In 2014, you'll note that the Outlander PHEV requires at least 95 octane (RON) unleaded fuel, which is 91 octane (AKI) premium fuel in the US. We don't know what the US version will need, but we've heard it will be "completely different." The Outlander has a 12-kWh battery and should have an EV range of around 30 miles. Whether or not it will have a CHAdeMO fast-charging port in the US is still undecided, as is the question of whether it will have a 3.3 or 6.6 kW onboard charger. The timeline Kojima gave for the Outlander's US arrival was October or November of 2015, since the SUV still needs to be tested and homologated for the US, Kojima said, but the real problem is that Mitsubishi can't build enough. "The battery production capacity is limited," he said. "So that's why, [the] first [focus is the] domestic market and Europe showed more demand." As as an example, he mentioned not only the incentives but also said that the charging infrastructure is more built up in Europe. "We'd like to have it [in the US ] as soon as possible, of course," he said. According to numbers from the European group Transport And Environment (see press release and sales chart below), overall plug-in vehicle sales have been doubling each year since the new breed was introduced in 2010. Last year, almost 50,000 plug-in vehicles were sold in the EU, with the Renault Zoe EV, Outlander PHEV and Volvo V60 Plug-in at the top of the pack.

Nissan CEO plans to deliver 'raw details of the misconduct' to Renault

TOKYO/PARIS — Nissan Motor's CEO plans to meet one-on-one with the deputy CEO of automaking partner Renault in Amsterdam this week, sources told Reuters, amid tensions over the future of the alliance after Chairman Carlos Ghosn's arrest last month. The meeting would be the first face-to-face interaction between Nissan's Hiroto Saikawa and Renault's Thierry Bollore since Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 in Tokyo. It would take place alongside regular top-level, monthly talks between the partners and Mitsubishi Motor Corp that will be held over two days from Tuesday, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. Saikawa, who took over from Ghosn as CEO last year, is planning to discuss at the meeting with Bollore possible changes to the partnership's management and operations with an eye to continuing the alliance, another source who is close to Nissan's management said. The talks in Amsterdam could provide Saikawa with an opportunity to try and convince Renault executives of the gravity of Ghosn's alleged misconduct discovered during an in-house investigation by the Japanese automaker. They are being held a day after Saikawa rebuffed a demand from Renault for an extraordinary shareholder meeting that would have offered the French car maker a chance to weigh in on Ghosn's replacement as chairman and on other Nissan board appointments. Mitsubishi Chairman Osamu Masuko said late on Monday he will attend the Amsterdam meetings via video conference. A Nissan spokesman said Saikawa would attend meetings with alliance partners in Amsterdam from Tuesday, but declined to comment on the possibility of the one-on-one meeting with Bollore. Ghosn was charged last week alongside alleged accomplice Greg Kelly and Nissan itself over the company's failure to declare $43 million in deferred income that Ghosn had arranged to be paid while chairman and CEO. Both men remain in custody. The scandal has shaken the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, with Saikawa calling for changes to weaken Renault's control as he moved to oust Ghosn in the week of his arrest. Renault directors were briefed last week on the Nissan investigation that led to Ghosn's arrest but reiterated their earlier decision to keep him in office as chairman and CEO. But the Renault board has yet to be given direct access to Nissan's findings, which are being closely held by Renault lawyers answering to Ghosn's long-standing chief of staff and head of legal affairs at Renault, Mouna Sepehri.