Nissan News

  • Charging station at Hertz Global EV rental launch, New York City, December 2010

    A few weeks ago we told you that pharmaceuticals giant Walgreens had begun to install Level 2 electric car stations at stores in New York City, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago. While the presence of electric car charging stations -- an estimated 800 at Walgreens stores alone -- are a great way of combating perceived range anxiety in motorists considering the switch to electric, they won’t be good for your pocket. Why? Because Walgreens’ electric car charging partners are planning on charging between $3 and $4 for a 90 minute recharge. And that’s not for an ultra-rapid...

  • Nissan website 'The Planet Zero'
    Nissan Envisions A Green Utopia In 'Planet Zero' Game: Video

    Have a few minutes to kill this Friday? Enjoy online games? Then you might like a walkthrough of Nissan's newest project, a "game-style promotion website" called "The Planet Zero". Nissan's website envisions a planet where everything runs on electricity generated by the sun and wind, and thus...

  • BYD e6 at 2011 Geneva Motor Show, photo by Robert Llewellyn
    BYD e6 Electric Crossover Won’t Be Here Until Mid-2012

    We’ve known about Chinese firm BYD for some time now. In fact, its all-electric e6 was unveiled before the word Leaf became the name of an electric car. But despite unveiling a car long before many of its rivals, BYD won’t be bringing the e6 to the U.S. until the middle of next year. If...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan Gives First Charging Station To City Visited By Top Gear (BREAKING)

    If you’ve been following the story of what happened when popular British entertainment show Top Gear took a 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Peugeot iOn (nee Mitsubishi i) for a drive to the rural eastern U.K. city of Lincoln, you’ll know that Nissan wasn’t exactly happy with the way its...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf - battery pack cutaway
    Nissan: “Leaf’s Battery Pack Should Last As Long As The Car”

    Nissan’s all-electric Leaf isn’t having a great time of it this week in the mainstream media. Firstly, Nissan had to defend itself against popular British motoring entertainment program Top Gear after it showed the electric hatchback in a less-than favorable light, quoting a battery...

  • Electric Car Battery Swapping- Chinese Style
    Say Hello To Electric Car Battery Swaps, Chinese Style

    We all know that one of the biggest challenges facing electric cars is the fact that recharging a battery pack is orders of magnitude slower than filling a gasoline car’s fuel tank. As battery packs have become more advanced, we’ve seen an increased use of rapid charging technologies...

  • Ryan Reynolds Nissan Leaf Spokesperson

    It was a slow month for electric-car sales, with just over 1,000 Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt vehicles together delivered during July. Nissan delivered 931 Leaf battery-electric cars, a decline from June's 1,708, and Chevrolet--which is suffering from a now-ended four-week summer shutdown for retooling at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant--sold a mere 125 Volts. That brings the 2011 Leaf total to 4,806, and the number of Volts sold to 2,870 (plus another 326 Volts and 19 Leafs in December 2010). One warning: Be on the lookout for silly, misleading articles that claim electric-car demand is...

  • Nissan Carwings App for Android OS
    Nissan North America Releases Android App for Leaf Electric Car

    Ever since the launch of the 2011 Nissan Leaf, owners have been able to remotely access information about their car’s state of charge, estimated range and even pre-heat or cool the cabin using Nissan’s built-in telematics service - Carwings. But unless you happened to own an iPhone in...

  • Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell with mobile refueler
    5,000 Hydrogen Stations By 2020, For Forklifts, UPSes & Cars

    We don't hear so much about hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles these days. Just five years ago, before the announcement of either the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car or the 2011 Chevy Volt range-extended electric, several auto companies were in the process of developing test fleets of...

  • 2011 Nissan ESFLOW Concept
    Nissan Turns Us On With ESFlow In TV Ad; Will They Build It?

    Has Nissan subtly told us that the ESFlow is just over the horizon for actual production?

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan Leaf Scores 5-Star NHTSA Crash Safety Rating

    The Nissan Leaf is the first and only electric car to be crash tested by the NHTSA and it has passed with flying colors.

  • Assembly of Think City electric cars, Elkhart, Indiana, Jan 2011
    Bankrupt Norwegian Electric-Car Maker Think Gets Russian Owner

    Well, it's official: After its fourth bankruptcy in two decades, the Norwegian electric-car maker Think Global has a new owner. As rumored last week, he's lumber baron Boris G. Zingarevich, of St. Petersburg. Zingarevich also happens to be the largest shareholder in Ener1, the lithium-ion cell...

  • Scenes from dedication of electric-car charging station at Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA

    Earlier this week we told you about the Danish town refusing to allow charging station and battery provider Better Place from installing charging points unless it painted them green. Now the electric car craziness has headed south to France, where officials at the French Ministry for the Environment have detailed guidelines which could dramatically affect the way in which electric car charging stations are deployed and used throughout France. If implemented at its most severe, the guidelines could lead to laws allowing only one public charging station per floor of a public parking garage, or...

  • First 2011 Nissan Leaf delivered to buyer, San Francisco, Dec 2010, photo by Eugene Lee
    Will CA Still Have Electric Car Rebates? Today Is Judgement Day

    As we reported back in December last year and again last month, California’s $4.1 million Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has now run out of money. If you’re one of the early adopters who has been lucky enough to buy a 2011 Nissan Leaf, or 2011 Tesla Roadster in the state since 2010 you...

  • Ultra-Capacitor Bus in Shanghai after fire; photo from Eastday
    Chinese Electric Bus Catches Fire On Road, Not The First One

    Chinese media are reporting that an electric bus caught fire in Shanghai at noon on Monday. And this is apparently not the first such incident. A Reuters report indicates that at least one earlier incident has been reported in the Chinese press within the last three months. A local Shanghai blog...

  • AAA's Mobile Electric Vehicle Charging truck
    Feeling Flat? The AAA Will Soon Be Able To Charge You Up

    What happens when your electric car runs out of charge? It’s a question we regularly get asked by readers and its one that for a while, there’s only been one real solution. Just like a gasoline car, you need to make sure you have enough fuel to make your trip. But everyone makes...

  • Fast Charging 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Seattle Loves 2011 Nissan Leaf So Much, It Buys 35

    Last week we told you how the City of New York had just taken ownership of 50, 2011 Chevrolet Volts in an attempt to green up everything from the NYPD to official departments few will have heard of. Now Seattle has followed suit, with the announcement that the city will be buying 35 all-electric...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    2012 Nissan Leaf: More Standard Equipment, Higher Price

    The 2012 Nissan Leaf electric car will include more standard equipment, but it will carry a higher price tag as well. Announcing the updates for the second Leaf model year, Nissan said today it will expand U.S. sales of the Leaf into several Southeastern states plus Illinois. The 2012 model of the...

  • Aptera 2e production intent vehicle

    Last week we told you that Aptera Motors had temporarily halted its online reservation system for its three-wheeled, two seat, ultra-efficient 2e electric car. Unusually quiet since its failure to win the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize, we contacted Aptera to check everything was okay and was told by an unnamed employee that an issue with an escrow account was preventing the firm from taking reservations. At the time we also contacted Marques McCammon, Aptera’s Chief Marketing Officer for an official response to the story. McCammon was unavailable for comment at the time of...

  • Nissan Leaf at the 2011 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
    Nissan Shares Pikes Peak Leaf Experience (VIDEO)

    Ever wonder how it feels to travel the famous Pikes Peak hill-climb circuit in Colorado in an electric car? While an AC Propulsion powered full-spec race car sponsored by tire firm Yokohama may have set a new electric car hill climb record of 12 minutes and 20 seconds, Nissan was sending one of its...

  • Leviton Level 2 Electric Car Charging Station
    Leviton Announces $1,049 DIY Install Electric Car Charging Station

    Electrical supply firm Leviton Manufacturing announced yesterday that it was now accepting orders for its $1,049 EVB22-3PM Level 2 charging station. Designed to provide up to 3.8 kilowatts to charge electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the Leviton unit can be installed...

  • Scenes from dedication of electric-car charging station at Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA
    Range Anxiety Antidote: You Don't Drive As Far As You Think

    It's been known among electric-car advocates for years that so-called "range anxiety" is somewhat overblown. That's despite, we might add, advertisements by a large U.S. company that sells a range-extended plug-in car that highlight its ability to let you drive it across the country on the spur of...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan Leaf News: Electric-Car Updates Coming For 2012, 2013

    The 2011 Nissan Leaf, the world's first modern battery-electric car built in volume by a major automaker, is starting to hit its stride. Now the evolution of the Leaf is getting clearer, as Nissan officials confirmed changes and updates to the car for the 2012 and 2013 model years. More than 4,000...

  • Renault Fluence ZE production electric sedan
    2012 Renault Fluence Z.E.: First Drive Report

    We don’t normally cover French automaker Renault, but when we were invited to drive its its first all-electric production car - the 2012 Fluence Z.E., we jumped at the chance. And we’re glad we did. Unlike its geeky cousin the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the Renault Fluence Z.E. is full of...

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