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Nissan applies for 'R-Hybrid' trademark, but what is it for?

Patent and trademark filings are sort of like tasseography for those of us in the auto industry. If you know where and how to look at something, there's a lot to be figured out. Take this trademark filing from Nissan - it's similar to the Pure Drive badge found on a Versa or Sentra, but the bottom half sports the phrase "R-Hybrid." This wouldn't be remarkable if the "R" in R-Hybrid weren't the same style as the "R" in the Nissan GT-R's badge, right down to the serifs.
While it's easy to see this as grasping at straws, it makes a fair degree of sense. The R35 GT-R may be a dominant performance machine, but it's been around since 2008, which is donkey years in the automotive industry. And based on the recent crop of hybridized hypercars and racecars, a hybrid GT-R doesn't seem like such a stretch.
As Car And Driver points out, figuring out that the GT-R will go hybrid isn't hard - figuring out when it will arrive, is. The buff book rightly points out that a new GT-R isn't expected until 2017, but that designing and trademarking a badge four years ahead of time is a bit odd. Car and Driver speculates that we could see a mildly hybridized R35, although the chances do seem remarkably low. Head over to C/D for a more thorough rundown on why this just might be a GT-R badge, including comparisons with other R-badged Nissans.

2014 Nissan Juke Nismo RS amps up the funky crossover

Nissan unveiled an even hotter version of the hotter Juke Nismo at the Los Angeles Auto Show - the Juke Nismo RS, a 215-horsepower crossover that may be the most hardcore model in the compact CUV segment (until we can convince Mazda to build a Mazdaspeed CX-5, that is).
The 215 hp and 210 pound-feet of torque represent bumps of 18 hp and 26 lb-ft over the standard Juke Nismo thanks to a revised ECU, a new exhaust with a larger diameter tube, and stronger connecting rods. This amped-up engine can be mated to the owner's choice of a six-speed manual, which takes advantage of a stronger clutch cover and dual-mass flywheel, or an Xtronic continuously variable transmission (although the CVT model loses four horsepower and all of the extra torque that the Nismo RS enjoys).
"We expect drivers to feel a noticeable increase in acceleration - especially the manual transmission model - in the RS versus the regular Juke Nismo. It also holds peak torque longer. Combined with the Helical Limited-Slip Differential, which helps reduce torque steer, the sense of driving excitement is unmatched in the Juke lineup," said Pierre Loing, Nissan's vice president of product and advanced planning and strategy.

Are you the next Nissan Frontier?

A reader of the Phillippine site Autoindustriya.com sent in what appear to be naked spy photos of the pickup that Nissan recently teased first in photo then in video. The shots, one taken from the front and one from the back, have been found on the Nissan Navara Club Thailand forum. The details in the two photos, one from the front and one from the back, match up with the details we can make out from the teaser video, lending credence to the idea that this is indeed the next Nissan Navara, which is essentially the Frontier in overseas markets. Nissan US has reportedly disavowed this as our next Frontier, though; the mysterious photo on Twitter was put there by Nissan Thailand, supposedly the location of these two trucks.
The only other detail submitted with the images is that there's a 2.5-liter turbodiesel under the hood putting out 187 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque, running through either a seven-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual. The reveal is scheduled for June 11, which is when we should know a lot more about the Navara and how much it is or isn't indicative of what we'll get with the next Frontier, a vehicle we're still not expecting for some time.