2014 Nissan Rogue Select S on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Formula Drift kicks off 11th season on Streets of Long Beach

The 2014 Formula Drift series kicked off last weekend in Long Beach, and saw Chris Forsberg, who you'll recall went mad and drifted around a warehouse in an Infiniti M, take the title behind the wheel of his Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z (shown above).
Forsberg really ran away with the first round of competition, outscoring his closest opponent, second-place finisher Kenneth Moen and his Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX, by 20 points. Third place was 2013 championship winner Michael Essa and his Yokohama BMW M3, 30.5 points behind Forsberg.
In the manufacturers' title, Nissan took an early lead with 122 points, which isn't a huge surprise considering five of the top ten drifters were piloting either a Z or a product of the brand's S platform. Ford, which had two drivers (Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin, Jr.) in the top ten, took home second place, while BMW is currently third in the manufacturers' standings.

Recharge Wrap-up: utility sells discounted Powerwall, Nissan-Renault builds 340K EVs

Vermont electric utility Green Mountain Power is selling discounted Tesla Powerwalls to its customers in hopes of balancing the grid. The battery packs would be used not just to help customers store renewable energy for home solar systems or as backup power, but also to occasionally discharge power back to the grid when needed. In addition to this decentralized energy storage being useful to customers, it also benefits the utility by taking demand off energy generating infrastructure during periods of peak demand. The pilot project will put 500 Tesla Powerwalls in customers' homes. Learn more at Green Car Reports, or in the story from Vermont Public Radio. Together, Nissan and Renault have built 340,000 electric cars. The allied Japanese and French automakers hit 100,000 EVs in July 2013, 200,000 in November 2014, and a quarter million in June of 2015. The Nissan Leaf, which first went on sale at the end of 2010, makes up the bulk of the EVs the Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold. Renault delivered its 50,000th Zoe EV in April 2016. Leaf sales have declined in the US in recent months, due at least in part to the anticipation of the Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3. Nissan, however, is expected to update the Leaf with a 200-mile driving range in the coming years. Read more at Green Car Reports. Students at the Bearys Institute of Technology (BIT) in Karnataka, India have built what they call the Hybrid Water Car. The car uses a system to electrolyze hydrogen from water and add it to the fuel for more efficient combustion. The system has been placed into a chopped up, lightweighted Maruti Omni. While the benefits of onboard hydrogen electrolyzers have been debated for some time, the BIT students don't plan to stop there, as their next project car will be fueled completely by hydrogen. Read more from Car and Bike. Facebook has hired Rich Heley away from Tesla. The former Tesla VP of Product Technology is making the move to the social media giant's new Building 8 research lab. Heley joined Tesla in November 2013 after working at Apple. Read more at Automotive News.

Autoblog Podcast #380

Episode #380 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Chris Paukert and Seyth Miersma talk about the Fiat-Chrysler five-year plan, the seeming demise of the Nissan Cube, and proposed legislation to require speed limiters with a 68-mph maximum on America's tractor trailers. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #380: Topics: Fiat-Chrysler five-year plan Nissan Cube on the way out? Big rig speed limiters coming? In the Autoblog Garage: 2015 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG 2014 Chevrolet Sonic RS Sedan 2014 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite Hosts: Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, Seyth Miersma Runtime: 01:44:17 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Fiat Chrysler Plan - 29:40 Nissan Cube - 01:07:33 Semi Speed Limiters - 01:17:33 Q&A - 01:27:35 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Auto News Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Podcasts Rumormill Chevrolet Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep Nissan nissan cube speed limiters