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Bret Michaels Poisons Nissan's commercial trucking ops

Mötley Crüe isn't the only 1980s hair-metal band getting into the world of auto promotion. Poison frontman and reality show star Bret Michaels is following their lead and doing some advertising of his own. Where the Crüe have been all over the airwaves in recent years with a Super Bowl ad for Kia and music licensing with Dodge, Michaels has taken a very different route by becoming the pitchman for Nissan Commercial Vehicles.
The videos run the gamut to advertise predominantly the NV line of full-size vans, but the NV200 shows up a few times too. The star of this new campaign is Michaels' full-length music video (above) for the song Tough Love. It's basically a parody of all of those '80s rock ballads where the bands would slow the tempo down a little and reveal their softer side. Michaels rocks out at the Nissan proving grounds in Stanfield, AZ, while showing off the evaluation process and strutting around like a proper rock frontman. There are also a bunch of shorter videos (below) with the singer highlighting each part of the vans' torture testing. Although, the dialogue in these come off a bit more stilted. With these '80s metal bands getting into advertising, can it be long before Warrant is shilling for Fiat or Ratt for Mazda?

Nissan ZEOD RC completes 24 laps at Le Mans

Well, that's a nice start. Nissan says a test version of its ZEOD RC racecar has completed its first 24 laps at Le Mans in France. And, aside from two "small technical issues," things went swimmingly. The ZEOD (which stands for "zero emissions on demand") RC pairs a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine with a couple of electric motors and includes regenerative braking. The Japanese automaker first started testing the vehicle last fall. The first ZEOD prototype was unveiled at Le Mans last summer. Driven by Wolfgang Reip and Tommy Erdos, the test-version ZEOD suffered from a broken fuel pump and faulty exhaust, but still completed "large sections" of the circuit on electric power alone, so Nissan is gonna call the test run a success. The goal, of course, is to complete a single, 8.5-mile lap at Le Mans purely on electric power. Nissan will test the real version of the ZEOD this week in the UK. Satoshi Motoyama and Lucas Ordonez will drive with Reip at the actual Le Mans race. Check out Nissan's press release below, and take a look (you can cringe a bit if you want) at a really cool crash-test video of the car from last month here. Nissan ZEOD RC on track at Le Mans for the first time SILVERSTONE, UK & LE MANS, FRANCE – The Nissan ZEOD RC completed its first 24 laps of Circuit de la Sarthe with GT Academy winner Wolfgang Reip and two-time Le Mans P2 winner Tommy Erdos at the wheel. While the car was delayed with two small technical issues – a broken fuel pump issue and a broken exhaust – today's test was an important step in the development of the car that aims to complete an entire lap of Le Mans on pure electric power. "Today has been a very important step in the development of the car and what we have achieved is actually quite remarkable," said NISMO's Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, Darren Cox. "We knew we were tackling a huge challenge with the goal of building a car that could complete an entire 8.5 mile lap of Le Mans on nothing but electric power. We have certainly discovered why nobody has tackled it previously. "We completed large sections of the circuit today on EV power and learned a great deal," Cox continued. "Today was about testing the systems and ensuring the transition from electric to internal combustion power was seamless. Testing at other venues is extremely valuable but there is no substitute to running here at Le Mans.

Watch Nissan's autonomous Leaf in action

Getting its semi-autonomous Leaf legalized in Japan was just the first step. Now, Nissan is giving demonstrations of what its fully autonomous car is capable of at this year's Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) show - Japan's equivalent to America's Consumer Electronics Show. To show off the possibilities of its technologies, Nissan had an oval track set up at the show giving rides in an autonomous Leaf to the media. Even Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Toyota CEO Akio Toyodo caught a ride.
Nissan has since released a couple videos of its CEATEC demos, with one designed to look like a news report. In this video, you can watch the car go around the track and navigate intersections and road hazards. The second video shows Ghosn riding in the car, and he hints that Nissan's goal of having an autonomous vehicle in production by 2020 might be more of a worst-case scenario. Watch both videos and read through Nissan's official press release below.