2005 Nissan Altima 2.5 S on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Renault-Nissan at COP22, BMW launches Cruise e-Bike

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has been chosen to provide a fleet of electric cars for the UN's COP22 Climate Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco. The group will provide 50 passenger EVs – the Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf, and Nissan e-NV200 – to shuttle delegates to and from conference venues. The Alliance will also provide more than 20 charging stations to support the shuttle fleet. The group provided electric shuttles for the historic COP21 summit in Paris last year. Read more from Renault-Nissan. FCA, Iveco, and gas grid company Snam have signed an agreement to boost natural gas as a cleaner alternative fuel for Italy. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, FCA and Iveco will work together to develop CNG vehicles, while Snam will invest in CNG supply facilities like filling stations to support a growing fleet. Italy leads Europe in the amount of natural gas consumed for transport, with 1 million vehicles currently on the road. Read more at Green Car Congress. LG Chem has officially announced it will build a battery plant in Poland to the tune of about $340 million. Located near Wroclaw in southwestern Poland, the plant is expected to produce 100,000 batteries a year for 200-mile EVs beginning in 2019. The plant could help Poland in its goal to reduce pollution by introducing a million EVs on its roads by 2025. "We will turn the Poland EV battery plant into a mecca of battery production for electric vehicles around the world," says UB Lee, President of LG Chem's Energy Solution Company. Construction begins in the second half of 2017. Read more from Automotive News Europe. BMW has introduced the Cruise e-Bike. Its Bosch Performance Line electric motor provides electric assistance at speeds of up to 15 mph. The battery can be either be removed or remain on the bike for charging, which takes 3.5 hours for a full charge. "BMW aims to be the leading provider of premium mobility services, and our bicycle collection furthers that mission," says BMW Accessory and Lifestyle Manager Eric Riehle. "As we enter the holiday season, these bikes make the perfect present for those wishing for their first BMW." The BMW Cruise e-Bike costs $3,430. Read more from BMW.

NHTSA probing whether to call Nissan to the carpet over Versa unintended acceleration

The Nissan Versa and Versa Note may have a carpeting problem that could make the little cars risky to drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is launching a preliminary evaluation into the 2012-2014 model year versions of the Versa, Versa Sedan and Versa Note, affecting an estimated 360,000 vehicle. In these vehicles, it's possible that the driver's foot could be caught where the carpet meets a trim panel near the accelerator. The regulator has four reported instances of the issue, but it's still collecting data from Nissan about any further cases.
According to the complaints, the tunnel carpet cover trim panel can possibly snag the drivers' right shoe where it meets the carpet, and can either keep their foot on the accelerator or prevent moving it to the brake pedal. In one case, the problem was bad enough that the driver had to free his foot using his hand, while driving. In two of the four reported cases, the vehicles were rental cars.
This is actually the second ongoing preliminary evaluation for some of these models. In late May, NHTSA started looking into the 2013-2014 Versa and 2014 Versa Note for long brake pedal travel.

Preserving automotive history costs big bucks

$1.8 million is spent each year to maintain GM's fleet of 600 production and concept cars.
When at least two of the Detroit Three were on the verge of death a few years back, one of the tough questions that was asked of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler execs - outside of why execs were still taking private planes to meetings - was why each company maintained huge archives of old production and concept vehicles. GM, for example, had an 1,100-vehicle collection when talk of a federal bailout began.