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Tesla, BMW and Nissan meeting in secret to discuss charging tech

It's interesting what's happening in the electric vehicle field. It used to be that BMW and Tesla were competitors. Then – and of course they're still competing, especially in the public mind – they were working together on ... something. Maybe. And now, the Financial Times reports that the two luxury automakers are meeting with Nissan. Again, maybe. The scuttlebutt is that the three companies are interested in working together on something to do with charging electric vehicles, potentially a global recharging standard. Currently, when it comes to fast charging, BMW uses the SAE Combo standard, Nissan uses CHAdeMO and Tesla uses its own Superchargers. The meeting was prompted by Tesla opening of all of its patents the other day, FT says. Speaking during the recent annual shareholder meeting, Musk said he was "more than happy to have other manufacturers" use Tesla's Superchargers but that, "there is no other electric car that can accept anything close to 135 kilowatts." Let's assume the technical hurdle can be overcome. With any potential patent/licensing problems out of the way, these discussions with BMW and Nissan might be revolving around this other angle that Musk mentioned: "They (other automakers) just have to contribute to the capital cost, so figure out what percentage of the time are their cars using the Supercharger network and then they can make a contribution proportionate to their customer usage of the Supercharger network." That certainly sounds like something that could take some time to figure out. News Source: Financial TimesImage Credit: Elbilforeningen / Flickr Green BMW Nissan Tesla Electric supercharger chademo sae combo

Panoz and DeltaWing suing Nissan over BladeGlider concept

Similarity is bound to occur in an industry where most of the products follow the same basic formula. But once in a while a new design comes along that doesn't quite reinvent the wheel, but comes pretty damn close. The DeltaWing project was one such design - and Nissan, the car's designers allege, stole that design.
After the DeltaWing proposal was rejected by the IndyCar series, its creators took it to Le Mans and brought Nissan on board to supply the power. Nissan subsequently pulled out of the program and came out with the ZEOD RC hybrid racer (right), bearing a suspiciously similar design with an unusually narrow front track at the end of a long nose cone, and a wider track at the back. The Japanese automaker then displayed the BladeGlider concept (below, right) at the Tokyo Motor Show, envisioning a translation of the same formula into road-going form.
The similarity did not escape Don Panoz, who - after making sports and racing cars under his own name and founding the now-defunct American Le Mans Series - was a central figure in bringing the original DeltaWing to life. Now Panoz has filed a lawsuit against Nissan, soliciting the courts to issue a cease-and-desist order on both the ZEOD RC and BladeGlider projects, naming Nissan motorsport chief Darren Cox and Ben Bowlby (who defected to Nissan from the DeltaWing program) as part of the suit.

2013 Nissan Pathfinder drivers reporting loss of power, 'shuddering' [w/video]

No one appears to have a handle on the numbers, but more than a few owners are registering the same complaint about the CVT-equipped 2013 Nissan Pathfinder: that it "shudders" and loses power when accelerating from a standstill or at low speeds. According to posters at places like Pathfinder Talk, Edmunds, Auto Recalls for Consumers and About Automobile, it happens between about 20 to 40 miles per hour, the sensation is described as being like "driving over a rumble strip" and the power loss occurs for about three to four seconds.
ABC 13 in Houston rode with Pathfinder owner Marlise Holzworth to experience the issue, Holzworth saying that it feels like her vehicle is about to stop when the shudder occurs. Nissan responded to the report, saying that, "A new part has been developed for 2013 Pathfinders that exhibit symptoms similar to those Ms. Holzworth describes. The necessary part should be available at Nissan dealers in June."
Likewise, according to a post on the PathfinderTalk forum, user Krsin97 was informed by a Nissan engineer in April that "[We] are aware of the problem and Nissan is working on update that will come out at the end of June to eliminate the problem."