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Nissan Micra overtaken by bees in England

A 20,000-insect-strong colony of bees attempted to turn a Nissan Micra into their new hive on Friday. The invasion happened in the English town of Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, and is just one of a few unexpected bee swarms in the country in recent days.
The car belonged to a student, who alerted the local council. A beekeeper was called in to move the colony of European honey bees to a safer location, on the roof of a nearby church, where they can be tended to.
Scroll down for a video of the bees in full-on swarm mode on the back of the second-gen Micra.

Mitsubishi, Nissan will build mini EV together

That minicar project that erstwhile competitors Nissan and Mitsubishi launched about four years ago is about to go a little more maxi. NMKV Co., the joint venture established in June 2011 by the two Japanese automakers to make minicars, is going to get more resources specifically to ease a move into the electric-vehicle sector. Specifically, Nissan, which makes the all-electric Leaf, is going to have a bigger role in the testing, design, and development of the partnership's mini EVs. A memorandum of understand between Nissan and Mitsubishi, maker of the i-MiEV, is in the works. So far, the joint-venture has sold about 500,000 gas-powered three-cylinder compact vehicles under the two automotive brands, so it must be doing something right. The first Nissan Dayz and the Mitsubishi eK Wagon models started production in 2013. Sales of the Nissan Dayz Roox and Mitsubishi eK Space, which went the higher-roof route, began early last year. Nissan and Mitsubishi started making noise about this last summer, when word came out that the little EV may be priced at less than $15,000 in Japan, quite a bit cheaper than either the Leaf or the i-MiEV over there. As with the current models, the future minicar variants will be produced at Mitsubishi's Mizushima factory in Japan. So far, the partnership would only say that details about NMKV's next-generation mini EV will be released "at a later time," so specifics like range and other performance measures will have to wait. Until then, you can take a look at NMKV's press release below. Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors and NMKV reach agreement on planning and development of next-generation minicars Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, and their joint venture NMKV Co., Ltd. today reached an agreement to continue their joint project regarding development of the next generation of current minicar models. The three companies will soon sign a memorandum of understanding. The companies aim to develop more competitive products by optimizing resource allocation and their respective roles and responsibilities. Nissan will be more deeply involved in development operations, such as design development and testing. In addition to its product planning and project development roles, NMKV will strengthen its management capabilities by adding a new department to enhance collaboration with engineering and manufacturing functions. Vehicle production is planned to continue at Mitsubishi's Mizushima Plant.

Robert Llewellyn fast-charges long-distance Leaf EV drive in UK

A British actor likely best known in his country for his role in the 1980s and 90s comedy series Red Dwarf has just made a pretty good case for driving green automobiles. Last week, Robert Llewellyn has completed an 862-mile round trip between London and Edinburgh in a Nissan Leaf and says he was able to save time by finding enough fast-charging stations the entire way, UK website Excite/Motoring says. Llewellyn, along with co-driver David Peilow, knocked out the London-to-Edinburgh leg in a single day, in part because of the British network of about 150 fast-charging stations. Llewellyn used his Twitter feed to update the general public of the two drivers' progress, noting that the first leg took about 13 hours. The round trip was completed January 26. Nissan can use all the positive publicity in can get, as UK sales of the all-electric vehicle failed to keep pace with the surging rate of demand in the US, where 2013 Leaf sales more than doubled from a year earlier to 22,610 units. In fact, in the UK, Nissan started offering incentives last month, things like free quick charging at Nissan dealerships, the ability to borrow gas-powered Nissans for free and free towing.