The Chinese government finally announced its long-awaited and much discussed subsidy program for the fledgling electric car industry. China will waive sales taxes on electric and fuel cell cars. There is only one limitation, which likely will make some Michigan Senators scream bloody murder: The cars must be made domestically in China. Read More >
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Category: Nissan
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Nissan ReviewsThe Nissan name was first used in 1933, but the company's history goes back much further. Originally known as Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works, the company produced its first automobile, the DAT, in 1914. DAT later became Datsun (son of DAT) in 1931 and Datsuns went on to become the first mass-produced vehicles in Japan. Americans got their first look at the Datsun in 1958 - the 1200 Sedan. The Datsun 240Z was released as a 1970 model and it became the best selling sports car in the world, selling 500,000 units in less than 10 years. |
Sergio Marchionne always had been a proponent of the “the world only has room for six large global automakers” theory. Fiat and Chrysler isn’t necessarily a marriage between two robust partners. Especially in the Asian growth markets, both are weak. According to Italy’s Corriere Della Sera, Marchionne is rekindling a years-old flirt with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen. Of course, none of the presumably dating companies will confirm the rumor. However, the rumor was started by Sergio Marchionne himself, in Detroit. Read More >
Chrysler’s so sure their electric minivan has the power to stomp the competition, they had Ndamukong Suh sit in the thing.
No, I’m serious.
That’s Ndamukong Suh.
The minivan is the Chrysler 700C. What’s different about it, besides the Dustbuster-meets-Nissan-Quest looks?
Yes, the usual suspects are crying foul about the Nissan Pathfinder moving back to a unibody crossover style platform. Who cares? I would love to see some data on the number of Pathfinder users taking their cars off-road, on anything more rugged than a gravel driveway.
Like the Infiniti JX, the Pathfinder will have three rows of seats, but Nissan did not announce powertrain details. Knowing Nissan, it will probably have some kind of VQ V6 and a CVT gearbox with an all-wheel drive setup. People taking their kids to and from soccer and ballet probably couldn’t care less.
It’s not that the cross-sharing of technologies between Renault-Nissan has been a well-kept secret. However, it is good to hear that loose alliances between unlikely partners work, while a marriages made in the automotive compatibility heaven (we are looking at you, Volkswagen & Suzuki) don’t even get to the consummation part.
Renault-Nissan announced today in Detroit that its Decherd, Tenn., plant will build Mercedes-Benz 4-cylinder engines for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz starting in 2014.
Read this sentence carefully. Read More >
Finally, a day later, the two German primadonnas, Daimler and BMW, handed in their homework, and America can get on with its life, knowing that Americans bought 1,243,784 light vehicles in December. This brought annual sales in the U.S. to the official total of 12,778,885 units, up 10 percent over 2010.
Now for the primadonnas. Read More >
Wamp wamp! That’s the sound of the sad trombone playing for the Chevrolet Volt, which missed its 2011 sales target by 2,329 units. General Motors hoped that the Volt would sell 10,000 units in 2011, but it was not to be.
Bloomberg reports that the bow tie brand sold only 7,671 Volts in 2011, but has plants to increase annual production to 60,000 units annually. 45,000 of those will be sold in the United States. The Volt had only been on sale nationwide for the final three months of 2011.
U.S. December sales results, and with December, full year results begin to roll in. What we see so far looks like a December surprise: Numbers come in stronger than expected by analysts. Chrysler is up 37 percent in December and 26 percent for the year. GM is up only 5 percent in December, but 13 percent for the year. Ford up 10 percent in December, 9 percent for the year. Volkswagen surprises with 36 percent up in December and 26 percent for the year. Subaru up 26 percent in December, but only one percent for the year. Toyota ( not on the list yet) reports a flat December and the year down by 7 percent.
Table after the jump. Watch this page for more updates. Data courtesy Automotive News [sub]
Note: Sales for BMW and Daimler are estimates by Automotive News, as both companies have not reported yet. The totals remain preliminary also.
Today, Nissan/Renault’s Indian partner Rajaj introduced an ultra low-cost car. Actually, Rajaj does not call it a car. Rajaj calls it a “four wheeler.” An analyst called it an “upgraded rickshaw.” Rajaj thinks the analyst is right on target. Read More >
Hongqi is the most famous brand in China when it comes to parade cars. In 2008 however, Chery tried to change that with help from the Chinese army and some astronauts. The Eastar parade car debuted in April 2008 and was used for a very special military parade. Or more like a parade of parades. Read More >
Picture courtesy media.mazda.ca
One of the constant dangers for your humble TTAC correspondent is drifting away from gimlet-eyed and ruthless objectivity towards developing a soft spot for a particular manufacturer. Lord forbid you should ever start becoming an “advocate”.
Should such tendencies emerge, one of our larger and hairier Senior Editors will show up on the front stoop bearing a large boat oar emblazoned with “Integrity” and begin beating you about the ears in the manner of the berserker school-master from Flann O’Brien’s An Beal Bocht. Leaving aside semi-obscure references to mid-century Irish literary satire for the moment, there’s one company for which I’d cheerfully risk the aforementioned major head trauma: Mazda.
Remember Sakura and Fuji, the two tiny Datsun 210s that went to “The World’s Cruelest Rally” and came home with a trophy? This story has a sequel.
In 1958, two Datsuns, named “Fujii” and “Sakura” entered the Mobilgas Trial, 10,000 miles all around Australia. Surprisingly, “Fuji” won its class title. “Sakura” finished fourth.
Half a century later, the cars were found in a warehouse in Japan. Read More >
In the ramp-up to the launch of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, a great debate seized the engineering community: was Nissan opening itself to problems by not including a active thermal management system for the Leaf’s battery pack, or was Chevrolet’s liquid-cooled approach simply adding unnecessary complexity? Well, thus far, the verdict seems to be in Nissan’s favor. Though Leaf has been troubled by some dissatisfaction with its real-world range, the Volt has endurd the first technical semi-scandal of the plug-in era, when federal regulators found that ruptured coolant lines could cause fires. Now the liquid-cooled approach is hitting its second challenge, as Fisker’s battery supplier A123 Systems is warning in a letter [PDF] that
some of the battery packs we produce for Fisker Automotive could have a potential safety issue relating to the battery cooling system.
Ruh-roh!
Read More >
Over the past few weeks, we flew over Romania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and New Caledonia. And what could be the complete opposite of a paradisiac island with white sandy beaches currently right in the middle of Summer? Try one with only a couple of hours of daylight, right in the middle of a traditionally very intense Winter: Iceland.
For those of you dear readers for which geography was not the forte at school (yes you in the back with the red shirt, I’m talking to you), Iceland is a lovely island up north of the Atlantic Ocean roughly midway between Greenland and England. Just don’t visit it in winter because 1) everything is closed, and 2) blink and you missed daylight. Iceland was under the spotlight so to speak last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano (say that word very very quickly so we can have a laugh) erupted, causing widespread air travel disruption.
If very very very long winter nights by the fire are not your thing, that’s OK, I’m with you, and this is why I prepared 159 additional countries for you to visit in my blog, so don’t be shy and click away!
Now. Cars. Yes. It’s a car site after all. The Icelandic car market, although very limited, has gone through a radical transformation since the economic crisis of 2008-2009…
All told, this has been a successful holiday season for your humble editor. I have showered myself with gifts, avoided annoying family entanglements, kept my pimp hand weak strong, and made sure there’s a three-hour gap in my Christmas to re-watch Michael Mann’s Heat in its glorious entirety.
And yet… I’m dissatisfied. Perhaps because there are ten simple things the automotive industry and/or its various players could do to make this the best season ever, and as of yet, none of them have been done. So here’s my list, delivered nice and late. Warning: mixture of hatred, sarcasm, and foolish sincerity ahead.
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