Nissan News
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This evening, the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car will make its long-awaited debut at events in Tokyo, Las Vegas, and elsewhere around the world. The Leaf remains the world's highest-volume electric car, with more than 280,000 of the first-generation cars delivered since December 2011 (112,000 of those in the U.S.). That number, however, is considerably lower than the rosy forecasts issued by Nissan's then-CEO Carlos Ghosn before the car was introduced. DON'T MISS: 2018 Nissan Leaf teaser: electric car will 'amaze your senses' The Leaf, in fact, points to the many deep challenges facing all...
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Nissan has sold electric-car battery unit AESC to Chinese investor GSR (updated)
With the global introduction of the second-generation Nissan Leaf electric car due next week, one open question concerns the source of its battery cells. To date, Automotive Electric Supply Corporation—a joint venture between Nissan and Japanese electronics giant NEC—has supplied...
John Voelcker -
2018 Nissan Leaf teaser: electric car will 'amaze your senses'
With the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car due to be unveiled to the world in Japan on September 6, the company continues to release bits and pieces of teaser information. Yesterday, Nissan issued a video promoting a list of the new model's features. It also provided a photo of the electric hatchback's...
John Voelcker -
San Diego utility offers $10,000 off Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 electric cars
For southern California residents, it's an excellent time to start considering the purchase of a BMW i3 or Nissan Leaf electric car. San Diego Gas & Electric has joined a host of other utility companies in the state in offering incentives towards the purchase of an i3 or a Leaf. In total, the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Nissan Leaf electric car platform to spawn more models, SUV included: report
The 2018 Nissan Leaf apparently won't be the brand's lone electric car for much longer, if a new report with details on plans to expand the electric car's underpinnings to additional models proves accurate. Following the introduction of the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, the electric car's...
Sean Szymkowski -
Next 2018 Nissan Leaf teaser sketch; electric car debuts Sept. 5
The global debut of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car is just a month away, and now another teaser image has been released. This one's a design sketch showing a drawing of the car's side profile, suitably shaded to obscure some of the details. You can compare it to a shot of the actual vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Its maker has begun the countdown to the early-September unveiling of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car with a series of staged teaser photos and factoids. But with the prevalence of smartphone cameras, it's harder and harder for carmakers to keep their new models completely under wraps. Which is how we come to have a shot of the 2018 Leaf, undisguised, that was grabbed during an advertising shoot. DON'T MISS: 2018 Nissan Leaf to have e-Pedal: here's what that means That image and three others were published yesterday by Broom, a Norwegian site; they show a white Leaf being filmed by a boom...
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2018 Nissan Leaf to have e-Pedal: here's what that means
No, the new 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car isn't going to have only a single pedal—despite at least one headline late yesterday claiming that. Honest. But the "e-Pedal" in the next generation of Nissan's highest-volume plug-in vehicle does offer some interesting new features. DON'T MISS...
John Voelcker -
If 2018 Nissan Leaf has 200-mile range, what will it cost? Poll results
At the moment, the Tesla Model 3 is getting lots of media attention and electric-car buzz now that the company says its first production car has rolled out of the factory—even if features, specs, and pricing isn't yet known. Meanwhile, the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV is at roughly 9,000 cars...
John Voelcker -
New life for old Nissan Leaf electric car: battery replacement and what it took
The 2018 Nissan Leaf will likely be revealed within the next three months, but more than 100,000 older Leaf electric cars are still silently in use on U.S. roads. Some of them, especially the lowest-range cars from the two earliest model years (2011 and 2012), have started to see significant...
John Voelcker -
Latest teaser for 2018 Nissan Leaf shows ProPilot Assist self-driving capability
Nissan has begun to release a slow trickle of information about the 2018 Leaf electric car, but the latest teaser has nothing to do with its zero-emission powertrain. Instead, Nissan has revealed the 2018 Leaf will arrive with ProPilot Assist, the automaker's driver-assistance technology. The...
Sean Szymkowski -
Nissan Gripz Concept uses Note e-Power series-hybrid system
The series-hybrid powertrain, in which motive power is provided exclusively by one or more electric motors that run on electricity produced by a combustion engine, has been popular in trains and boats for many decades. In cars, it's been confined to the BMW i3 REx and the Fisker Karma (now Karma...
John Voelcker -
With the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV on the market since December and Tesla Model 3 deliveries said to start within a few months, the upcoming 2018 Nissan Leaf is in danger of getting lost in the noise level. The second generation of Nissan's pioneering electric car will likely be unveiled within the next three months. But what happens after that? DON'T MISS: 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car: first teaser photo (headlights!) emerges So far all we've seen is a photo of a 2018 Leaf headlight, released last month, and a few spy shots. If past practice holds, the company will trickle out another teaser...
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Lots of ways to get $10K off 2017 Nissan Leaf electric car by end of June
The 2017 Nissan Leaf might well be the hottest electric car deal on the market right now, with a slew of potential discounts. Nissan is working with numerous partners to provide $10,000 off a 2017 Leaf lease, which adds to the $7,500 federal income-tax credit, giving a total of $17,500 in...
Sean Szymkowski -
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, other Japan firms to fund hydrogen fueling
Earlier this year in Europe, 13 companies joined forces to create the Hydrogen Council, a global initiative to discuss and promote the use of hydrogen as a renewable source of energy. In the United States, GM and Honda have partnered up to build a production plant in Michigan that will roll out...
John Voelcker -
Nissan electric SUV to be shown as concept car this year
The 2018 Nissan Leaf may be the brand's next electric vehicle to soak up attention, but several reports have indicated that Nissan plans to flesh out its lineup with an electric crossover. That all-electric SUV will likely be previewed with a Vmotion 3.0 concept, which will follow the Vmotion 2.0...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Nissan Leaf electric car: first teaser photo (headlights!) emerges
Sometime within the next few months, the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car will be unveiled to the world's media. The second generation of a pioneering plug-in vehicle that launched affordable all-electric cars on the global market. It's been a long time coming. DON'T MISS: 2018 Nissan Leaf: more spy...
John Voelcker -
Nissan's plans: reignite electric-car sales, boost lagging Mitsubishi
The Nissan Leaf has been a fading light in the electric car market, but after a few years in the dark, it will soon get a chance to shine once more. Despite a battery capacity increase in 2016 and a quarter of a million in sales since its 2010 launch, the Leaf has been in dire need of a proper trip...
Green Car Reports -
In designing, testing, and producing the Nissan Leaf, the first modern electric car sold in volume, Nissan made a design decision that some other companies didn't. It chose not to build an active thermal-conditioning system (otherwise known as cooling) into its battery pack. Instead, it relies on ambient air to shed heat—which got the maker into trouble with owners in very hot climates like that of Phoenix, Arizona, where asphalt temperatures can reach 140 degrees F or more in the summer. DON'T MISS: Lessons learned from early electric car: 2011 Nissan Leaf at 90,000 miles Nissan later...
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After Tesla, which automaker is best in electric cars? Poll results
Regardless of the number of cars they've sold—fewer than the Renault-Nissan alliance—Tesla is undoubtedly the best-known electric-car maker in the world. It delivered 76,000 cars last year, against roughly 10 million each for Volkswagen Group, Toyota, and General Motors. But its sleek...
John Voelcker -
Riding in prototype autonomous Nissan Leaf electric car: what it's like (video)
It's been a vision of the future for decades now: self-driving cars that let you get in, specify your destination, and then curl up for a bit more sleep, waking when you arrive. That kind of anywhere-any-time autonomy remains some years in the future, most engineers suggest. Automakers are already...
John Voelcker -
European brands adopt electric delivery trucks: Harrods, Hermes
In the U.S., electric-car advocates and green energy fans have been dealt some setbacks during recent weeks. In Europe, however, the push toward electrification remains as strong--and trendy--as ever. Delivering on zero emissions In Germany, courier service Hermes (not to be confused with French...
Richard Read -
Lessons learned from early electric car: 2011 Nissan Leaf at 90,000 miles
Being a pioneer isn't easy. When you're pioneering new automotive technology, it can be challenging and sometimes costly. Just ask anyone who owned an early turbocharged sport sedan, for instance. That also applies, in some cases, to some of the first modern electric cars, and in particular the...
John Voelcker -
2018 Nissan Leaf: more spy shots of electric car's second generation
The more camouflaged spy shots that emerge of a car being tested on public roads, the closer it likely is to being introduced. After seven years of the first-generation Nissan Leaf electric car, a redesign is due—some might say overdue. Now we have a second set of spy shots of the 2018 Leaf...
John Voelcker