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Nissan really milking this whole glow-in-the-dark Leaf thing

With the all-electric Nissan Leaf forgoing gas in favor of electricity, one doesn't generally associate the Leaf with anything involving "gallons." But the Japanese automaker has apparently gone all-in with this glow-in-the-dark paint shtick, and it has a Guinness World Record to prove it. For art's sake. Artist Ian Cook, of Popbangcolour, set out to create the world's largest glow-in-the-dark painting, and got a little help from a Leaf equipped with special paint that absorbs ultraviolet energy during the day, and can glow for as long as 10 hours at night. With the paint applied to the car's tires, the vehicle helped draw, yes, a "self-portrait." The painting, which took more than two days to complete and about 16 gallons of luminous acrylic paint on a giant PVC-coated canvas, measures more than 2,200 square feet, beating out the previous record of about 1,800 square feet set early last year. Earlier this year, Nissan started publicizing its work with inventor Hamish Scott at creating a special coating that gives that glow-in-the-dark effect and is even fully organic. The same type of paint was used along about a third of a mile along a Dutch "Smart Highway" whose stripes absorb rays during the day and glow at night. Cool. To see the nighttime friendly Leaf in action, take a look at Nissan's 84-second video about the big painting here and read Nissan's press release below. Glow-in-the-dark Nissan LEAF breaks Guinness World Records title for "Largest Glow-in-the-Dark Painting" Nissan uses glow-in-the-dark Nissan LEAF to achieve Guinness World Records title for the Largest Glow-in-the-Dark Painting title Artist Ian Cook, of Popbangcolour, used the tires of the LEAF to drive the glow-in-the-dark paint across the canvas Guinness World Records has confirmed that the painting, measuring 207.68m2, has broken the previous existing "Largest Glow-in-the-Dark Painting" Guinness World Records title LONDON – Nissan has broken the Guinness World Records title for the Largest Glow-in-the-Dark Painting by using the glow-in-the-dark Nissan LEAF to paint a 207.68m2 self-portrait of the 100-percent electric car. The painting, which depicts the front of a Nissan LEAF, was created by maverick motoring artist Ian Cook of Popbangcolour.

Chevy City Express headed for dealers

With competition coming from the Ford Transit Connect, it's high time Chevrolet got in on the compact hauling action and took the fight to its cross-town rival... and it's doing so with a little help from Nissan. The Chevy City Express, a badge-engineered Nissan NV200, is now arriving at dealers, giving Bowtie fans a counter to Dearborn's compact van.
"Our existing customers will love getting behind the wheel of the City Express when it's at their Chevrolet dealership," Ed Peper, GM's vice president of fleet and commercial vehicles said in a statement. "But we're most looking forward to giving potential new customers the opportunity to experience one of many Chevrolet commercial vehicles that best fit their needs."
Prices for the 2015 City Express start at $22,950. Scroll down for the official announcement from Chevrolet.

The Tesla Model S was the best-selling EV of 2015

According to numbers crunched over at Hybrid Cars, the Tesla Model S was the best selling pure electric vehicle last year with 50,366 deliveries. These numbers might not tell the whole story, since Tesla reports deliveries made in 2015 that might have been sold in a different calendar year, while other makers are tallying sales. However, it's inarguable that the Model S ended up in more worldwide driveways than the second-place Nissan Leaf, which did about 43,000 sales. In the US alone, Leaf sales were down 42.8 percent year-on-year, from 30,200 in 2014 to 17,269 last year, and that decline also increased throughout the year. That marks a great finish to a great start to 2015, when Tesla took the lead in EV sales in the US for the first quarter. On top of that, as of last year the Model S becomes the second-best selling EV ever, with 107,148 deliveries since the middle of 2012. It trails the Nissan Leaf, with well over 200,000 worldwide sales. The Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera combo takes a close third, with about 106,000 sales. The Nissan and Chevy rivals both launched at the end of 2010, a 16-month head start on the Tesla. Down the charts, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which continues to be forbidden fruit for our market notched 39,000 sales. The BYD Qin PHEV sold 31,898 examples in China, and BYD would take the overall victory from Tesla with 58,728 deliveries if you counted all of its EV and PHEV production, such as its electric buses. The BMW i3 nabbed fourth place with 24,057 global sales. In 2011 the Munich automaker said it wanted to sell 30,000 i3s annually by 2014, but by the time the car launched the company considered 15,000 annual sales 'great for now,' so the 2015 number seems a fine place to wind up. Related Video: News Source: Hybrid Cars Green BMW Chevrolet Mitsubishi Nissan Tesla