2003 Nissan Xterra Se Sport Utility 4-door 3.3l on 2040-cars

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US-built Infiniti Q50 engines to go into Euro-only cars

Back in March, Infiniti announced that it would be adding a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder to its Q50 line for European and Chinese buyers. Now, we know where that engine will be built.
Nissan's Decherd, TN facility will receive the $319-million investment, which will see a separate, dedicated line for the Infiniti engines. According to Automotive News, this is more than a line running alongside the Nissan operations - the Infiniti facility will sport its own unique architecture and interior lighting, in a bid to distinguish the premium line from its mass-market parent company.
The logistics of all this do seem, on the surface, quite screwy. Building a new engine on one continent for a car built on another that will eventually go on sale on a third doesn't seem too bright, although there is a catch here. The new engine will also find its way into the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which will kick off production in Vance, AL later this year.

World's cheapest Nissan Leaf costs just $9,460

If you thought electric vehicles were expensive, head on over to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. There, you can buy a Nissan Leaf for the amazingly low price of just 7,450 euros ($9,460 US). Or, if a practical delivery van is more your style, check out the Nissan e-NV200 Visia Flex, which is absurdly priced at 4,950 euros ($6,400). Now, you might be thinking, those prices don't seem right, and this isn't a case of Nissan slashing the price like someone in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Instead, these deals are already and unsurprisingly being called the "world's best EV incentives." The great deals - available to businesses only – are due to generous national and local government incentives that are designed to take dirty vehicles off the road. Things like scrappage incentives (worth 2,500 euros, or $3,240) and free parking for EVs as well as home charger incentives stack up until they bring the price of a new EV down to the levels listed above. Jordi Vila, the managing director for Nissan Netherlands, told Automotive World that, "By scrapping older vehicles and incentivising buyers to replace them with zero-emission electric vehicles, Rotterdam is taking a huge step in improving air quality." As great as these deals are, it turns out that most car buyers are unaware of EV incentives. This is too bad, since there is a short but interesting history of tremendous deals on plug-in vehicles, like the $10,000 discount on the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (or the $69/month lease on that thing). For pure "dollars off" value, though, nothing beats the $30,000 in total incentives that maybe be available in some Japanese prefectures for hydrogen vehicles, which might expand all the way to free H2 cars.

'Zero' chance of Renault taking over Nissan, Mitsubishi, says Ghosn

TOKYO — Renault SA absorbing Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp is not an option as the carmakers look to strengthen their partnership while retaining their autonomy, alliance chairman Carlos Ghosn said on Friday. "Anybody who will ask Nissan and Mitsubishi to become wholly owned subsidiaries of Renault has zero chance of getting a result," Ghosn told shareholders of Mitsubishi Motors at a meeting. He also serves as chief executive of France's Renault. The alliance was the world's top-selling passenger vehicle maker in 2017, but as the global auto industry consolidates, it is looking to strengthen its position before the 64-year-old Ghosn, its main architect, retires in the coming years after overseeing the partnership for nearly 20 years. We reported in March that the carmakers were discussing a deeper tie-up, which could see the French government, a major shareholder in Renault, give up influence at Renault and the French carmaker relinquish control over Nissan. The three automakers have a unique partnership designed to leverage their combined scale to save on costs including R&D, parts procurement and production to better compete with rivals Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. They are also interlinked by their shareholding structure. Renault holds 43.4 percent of shares in Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault, with no voting rights in a partnership that began in 1999. Mitsubishi Motors joined the alliance in 2016 after Nissan took a 34 percent controlling stake in the smaller automaker. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has said the alliance is not discussing a "full merger." Ghosn said that while the focus of the alliance was to sell more cars and increase profitability by reducing unnecessary duplication of processes, he wanted each of the three automakers to maintain their independence, which differentiated the group from Toyota and Volkswagen. "We need to work together ... to find a system by which what we have today, which is working very well, can continue in the future no matter who is leading the alliance," he said. "We need to prove that this is sustainable five years down the road, 10 years down the road, 15 years down the road." In a Figaro interview published last week, Ghosn was upbeat about the prospect of securing a new deal for the alliance despite its extreme political sensitivity in France and Japan, saying a plan would need to be announced "well before" the end of his four-year term at the helm of Renault in 2022.