1991 Nissan Sentra Se-r Sedan 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Renault's planned luxury sub-brand gets reconsidered

Renault believes there's enough Alpine love to restart that brand with its own model almost immediately. The launch of the Initiale Paris luxury brand it's been mulling, on the other hand, will be more restrained: a report in Autocar says that instead of launching with a first model based on the Mercedes E-Class architecture, Renault is going to introduce an Initiale Paris trim line on the new Clio and Espace. More accurately, that should be 're-introduce and aggressively market,' since Renault has used an Initiale Paris trim over the years since it introduced the concept car (pictured) in 1995, even as recently as the current-generation Laguna Coupe.
Other models will be added after the Clio and Espace, and when Renault can assess what kind of future the trim has, it will decide on the launch of a subsidiary brand. Company CEO Carlos Tavares said we shouldn't hang around waiting for a decision, though, declaring that establishing such a brand - if it even comes to that - "will be a job for at least my successor to worry about, not me."

Nissan Altima takes first V8 Supercars win

The V8 Supercars championship used to be strictly a contest between Holden and Ford. But just as BMW crashed the Audi and Mercedes party in DTM, so has Nissan (and for that matter, Mercedes) pushed past the door into Australia's popular touring car series. And like BMW, Nissan hasn't waited long before notching its first victory.
Nissan claimed the checkered flag this weekend in the first of three races at Winton, the ninth stop on the calendar. And what a spectacular win it was: not only did Nissan take the checkered flag, they finished one-two. James Moffat drove his Altima to the finish line just ahead of teammate Michael Caruso. It was Caruso who lead the first half of the race after qualifying just behind defending champion (and current points leader) Jamie Whincup, who suffered a gearbox malfunction and retired on only the ninth lap.
Of course that's just one race out of 27 so far and 37 scheduled this season, so that won't be elevating Nissan or any of its drivers to the lead the same way that BMW did upon its return last season to DTM, but it's a good start and a cause to celebrate for Nissan. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) and James Courtney (Holden) won the following two rounds at Winton as Jamie Whincup (Holden) leads Will Davison (Ford) in the standings.

Carlos Ghosn brings Nissan Leaf EV to happy nation of Bhutan

The Nissan Leaf has been declared the cleanest car in the US, and it's going to have a good case to claim the same title in Bhutan. Yes, Bhutan, the country famous for measuring Gross National Happiness is about to get serious about the EV Grin. Last December, we learned that Bhutan's capital city, Thimphu, wanted to build up a Leaf taxi fleet. That's when Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn went to Bhutan to talk about the project and he has recently returned to deliver some vehicles to the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, who has been advocating for EVs since taking office in July and has set a preliminary target of 2,000 EVs on the streets of Thimphu. Tobgay said his country, "will commit to a program to achieve zero emissions as a nation by a certain target date." It's not an outrageous goal for the Himalayan country, since it generates a lot of hydro-electric power, way more than it can use. There are only around 750,000 citizens of Bhutan and they only use five percent of the clean power made within its borders. Most of the rest goes to neighbor India. The problem, as expressed in Nissan's press release (available below), is that Bhutan takes "almost all of the revenue earned from selling electricity" to buy fossil fuel from India and power its national vehicle fleet. You can probably see how making the switch to EVs can simplify and clean things all around. There's a video of Ghosn's Bhutan trip below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Nissan Partners with Bhutan on National EV Strategy Feb. 21 – Thimphu, Bhutan – An electric revolution has begun in Bhutan. The remote Himalayan country, renowned for championing "Gross National Happiness," has taken first steps towards becoming a leading global electric-vehicle nation. Prime Ministers of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay and Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced a partnership in Thimphu Friday, which will see both parties work toward achieving Bhutan's ambitious clean-energy goals. "We will develop a program, we will commit to a program to achieve zero emissions as a nation by a certain target date," said Tobgay who has backed the EV project since taking office in July last year.