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Dacia Duster to spawn inexpensive Nissan Terrano, will we get it?

When going to overseas auto shows, one can't help but spend an inordinate amount of time eyeballing forbidden automotive fruit. It's often of the seriously rare, criminally powerful and six- or seven-digit variety. But more often than one might think, the genuinely affordable overseas hero makes us swoon, too. So it is with the Dacia/Renault Duster, the cheap-as-chips, hard-wearing utility vehicle. We've often thought that its basic, rugged charms would play well in the US if saddled with a low enough price tag, but we've never seen much of a window for that to actually come true.
But now, Autocar India is reporting that Nissan will flex its alliance with Renault to spin off a Duster of its own, one that exhumes the Terrano nameplate, a moniker once used for overseas versions of the first- and second-generation Pathfinder. The new model will feature unique sheetmetal to give it a familial look, but the interior will be the same, and we expect the same goes for the powertrain, meaning there will be a range of gasoline and diesel four-cylinder engines with both manual and automatic gearboxes and front- or all-wheel drive.
So, does that mean we'll get a Nissan version of the Duster-based Terrano to call our own? Sadly, almost certainly not. Company spokesman Dan Bedore tells Autoblog flatly, "There are no plans to bring this model to the US." Bummer. Even if it isn't ultimately as capable as the larger, long-in-the-tooth Xterra (it's more on par with the now departed Canadian-market X-Trail), we think the Duster's archetypal SUV looks and low cost barrier would win it plenty of fans in our market. Our guess is that redesigning the model to meet US regulations (crash, emissions, lighting, etc.) would be prohibitively expensive, and the Dacia/Renault model is built in some pretty distant facilities - Brazil, India, Romania and Russia among them - making the business case harder still.

Ghosn shares 'truth about Autonomous Drive cars'

Drive our cars. No, wait, don't drive our cars. Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn is delivering a message about autonomous driving that's less mixed than it sounds on the surface. As part of his public dialogue from LinkedIn's "Influencer" series, Ghosn said in a company announcement that "hands-free" driving is part of the Japanese automaker's "near-term technology." In fact, cars that can self-drive in heavy, stop-and-go traffic, may be ready for the market by late 2016. That should please texters everywhere. 2018 may be the year cars with lane-changing, hazard-avoiding capabilities will see the light of day, while by 2020, Nissan may feature a "complete package" of autonomous-driving features, Ghosn writes. As for the proverbial driver-less car? That's at least a decade out but ultimately likely, according to Ghosn. Nissan said early last year that some autonomous versions of its vehicles may be available in the US by the end of the decade, and that it was in talks with California regulators about the idea of self-driving cars on the state's roads. Nissan has worked with institutions such as MIT, Stanford and Oxford at developing autonomous-drive concepts, and has tested self-driving versions of the Leaf electric vehicles in Japan. Check out excerpts of the Ghosn "interview" below. The truth about Autonomous Drive cars, by Carlos Ghosn The following is the latest from Carlos Ghosn's LinkedIn Influencer series. Read all of Mr. Ghosn's LinkedIn Influencer articles here. There has been a lot of talk in the media recently about "Autonomous Drive" technology and a potential future of driverless cars. No doubt, Autonomous Drive technology will change how we approach driving. I expect it to result a significant transformation in transportation. But all the talk has left many drivers a bit confused. After years of promoting "eyes on the road, hands on the wheel," the auto industry is now talking about reading your email or a book while you drive – and the prospect of maybe not even needing a driver. So it's a good time to address the questions that arise whenever this subject comes up: Q: What is Autonomous Drive? A: Autonomous Drive combines the technology of robotics, artificial intelligence, sensors and car-to-car connectivity. It is a range of technologies that will be added to our cars over the next several years.

EZ-Charge program will get rolled out for all vehicles [UPDATE]

UPDATE: It appears that Chargepoint has pulled out of the program. It looks like a myriad of vehicles will be eligible for the single-card recharging program under NRG Energy's NRG eVgo division. The EZ-Charge platform that Nissan said last month would allow Leaf owners to use multiple vehicle recharging networks with a single card will soon be offered to other plug-in vehicles. eVgo will start sending out EZ-Charge cards this summer to various markets in Northern and Southern California and Texas as well as the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix, Nashville and Washington, DC. EZ-Charge uses a single card that is good for eVgo stations as well as stations within the ChargePoint, Blink and AeroVironment networks. It will debut in 10 EZ-Charge markets on July 1. By mid-2015, 15 more markets will be added. Nissan announced the 'No Charge to Charge' program last month at the New York Auto Show. Nissan said at the time that Leaf buyers would get two years of free charging, but individual charging sessions were limited to 30 minutes at CHAdeMO stations and an hour at the more-common Level 2 stations. The automaker also estimated that the 25 markets included by next year account for more than 80 percent of US Leaf sales. Take a look at NRG's press release below. NRG eVgo Introduces New Convenience to Electric Vehicle Charging First-of-Its-Kind EZ-Charge All-Access Card gives EV drivers convenience to use chargers from multiple charging providers PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This summer, NRG eVgo, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG), will roll out the EZ-Charge (SM) platform, a first-of-its-kind initiative that will offer electric vehicle (EV) drivers the ability to access multiple EV charging networks with a single all-access card. "For too long, EV drivers have been limited to only the chargers that were in their network meaning they might drive past a number of charging stations in other company's networks before they could get to one they could use with their current provider" The EZ-Charge platform will enable drivers of any electric car make or model to carry a single access card for charging on multiple networks, much like consumers today carry a single credit card to access multiple retailers.