Because car enthusiasts tend to be more interested in cars themselves than the industry that creates them, critics and commentators tend to praise engineers while vilifying accountants, marketers and the countless other professions required to bring a new car to production. The assumption seems to be that engineers develop great cars which are then cheapened, blandified and otherwise screwed up by everyone else. Obviously this is an oversimplified perspective, but in certain cases it’s downright undeniable. Rarely has it been more true than with the Nissan Juke.
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Recently, Nissan claimed that their Leaf will have a battery production cost of $375/kWh.  A what? Anyway, this was:

1. Surprising as battery costs for an electric cars were forecast to be between $400 – $700/kWh.
2. Meaningless, as long as people thing in lease rate /month and MPG (and conveniently forget it.

But Tesla’s founding father didn’t like that at all. (Read More…)

Chinese Automakers are worried that the formerly insane growth rates suddenly has reached levels of relative normalcy, what with total vehicle sales in July up only 14.4 percent.

What to do? Quick! Nissan came up with a novel idea: (Read More…)

What’s the difference between these two compact crossovers? American readers will recognize the vehicle on the left as the forthcoming facelift of the Nissan Rogue. The crossover on the right is a recently-released update to the European-market Nissan Qashqai. The Rogue is slightly larger in most dimensions than the Qashqai (not counting the extended-wheelbase Qashqai +2), and only offers a 2.5 liter engine while the Qash has a palette of four two-liter and smaller gas and diesel engines. But it’s not the Euro model’s cramped quarters or low-displacement engines that we find ourselves wishing could find their way to the American market… it’s the Qashqai’s updated styling that we want. Sure, these things are subjective, but the updated Rogue just doesn’t seem like much of an improvement on its predecessor’s looks. The Qashqai, meanwhile, has gone from filler to killer.

I’m still shaking when I think back to my first ride in the passenger seat of a brandnew Phaeton. It was piloted by a known reckless high executive of Volkswagen. Near Hannover, we barreled down the Autobahn, with the speedo indicating something above 250 km/h. I didn’t dare to inspect it closer, because I was scared to death. We were in the thickest of fogs. Visibility zero. “Aren’t you worried?” I inquired with a shaking voice. “Nope. We have RADAR.” Actually, it was called Abstandswarnung (distance warning). Now, Nissan will make it available to the common Joe. (Read More…)

Nissan wants to invest “the Americas” with three new low-cost subcompacts, made in Mexico by their Aguascalientes factory that can crank out 300,000 units a year. The cars are based on the Nissan’s V-platform. The Nissan March (known outside Asia as the Nissan Micra) is currently being made in Thailand and re-imported to Japan. It sells there for around $10,000. (Read More…)

As a Nissan rep pointed out via email last night, yesterday’s Chart Of The Day hardly tells the whole story of “the other Japanese brand.” Since 1995, Nissan has made up for declining “core model” sales by catching the tail end of the SUV/Truck craze with its Titan/Armada/XTerra/Murano combo. And, as this graph shows, those four models gave the brand a big spike for most of the last decade before diving unceremoniously towards oblivion (with the exception of Murano). Since then, Nissan seems to be targeting the niche left open by Honda: small, value-laden, efficient cars like the Rogue and Versa are Nissan’s new meal ticket (in addition to the still-soaring Altima). With a new Versa-based Juke mini-CUV launching this Summer, Nissan is poised to continue building on that image, but it still has to contend with remnants of its “Japanese Pontiac” and “Mainstream BOF-slinger” identities. Can Nissan be all of these things at the same time? Or will the Leaf EV halo push Nissan towards ever smaller, more efficient offerings and a neo-Honda emphasis on compact value? We’re hearing that changes are underway at the highest levels of Nissan’s leadership… coming up with a coherent brand vision and product plan for Nissan North America will have to be one of the new team’s top priorities.

Whereas other Japanese carmakers struggle a bit in keeping up with the still quite hot Chinese market, Nissan finds itself way ahead. Nissan’s China sales rose 51.4 percent in the first half to 503,077 vehicles, says The Nikkei [sub]. Reason given: strong demand from middle-class buyers.  The Chinese market as a whole rose some 30 percent in the first six months. (Read More…)

15 years ago, these six cars were Nissan. Sure, they sold a few Zs back in ’95 (4,176, actually), and the 240SX was in its last year of five-digit sales, but the Altima, Maxima, Sentra, Frontier, Quest and Pathfinder were the bread and butter. Needless to say, things change over 15 years, and though Nissan still sells all of these vehicles (excepting the Quest’s 2010 model-year hiatus), they’re no longer the reliable core they once were. Yes, the Altima sells like hotcakes, but Nissan’s other core nameplates are on steady steady glidepaths downwards, and the brand’s volume is largely being maintained by the introduction of new models. And as is so often the case in business, this shift away from core strengths is being rewarded by some thorough housecleaning. Having spent quite a bit of today talking with Nissan consultant Sharyn Bovat, yesterday’s rhetorical question What The Foxtrot Is Going On At Nissan is starting to come into sharper focus. Expect full reporting shortly, but in the mean time know this: things are changing at Nissan. My question now: does this chart help explain why?

Like most modern corporations, car companies tend to be extremely opaque. Only rarely do non-insiders like us get a peek behind the PR curtains of a major automaker, and when we do, we have to wonder why we’re getting the show… and what are we looking at, anyway? Just such a moment has arrived, as a tipster has pointed us to coolsprings.com, where an interview with a Nissan consultant based at Nissan North America’s headquarters in Tennessee appears to be literally overflowing with the kinds of juicy scandals, corporate gossip, and inside baseball that we so rarely see in print. But can the self-described whistleblower Sharyn Bovat be trusted? Is Nissan-Renault’s upper management really locked in a global struggle for control of the company? Do Tennessee taxpayers really pay for Nissan executives’ spa treatments? Did Nissan really relocate a number of employees from California to Tennessee, only to try to fire them shortly thereafter? This is The Truth About Cars, so we’ll proceed with caution… but this story is just too juicy to ignore.

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We finally know who’s responsible for shutting down Nissan assembly lines in Japan and the U.S.A. The shortage of a critical computer chip stopped Hitachi from making ECUs, which in turn stopped Nissan from making cars. For days, the identity of the lackadaisical chipmaker had been kept under wraps. Now, the culprit has been unmasked. (Read More…)

The shortage of a critical computer chip that Hitachi desperately needs to supply Nissan with ECUs  now threatens to affect U.S. production. Yesterday, Nissan warned that they will close down Japanese assembly lines. Today, Nissan COO Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said that production in the U.S. may be halted until the chip shortage is solved. (Read More…)

So far, it had been striking workers at Chinese parts suppliers that brought Japanese car makers to their knees, praying for parts needed to re-start the lines. Here is a new  twist: Japan’s Hitachi ran out of chips for ECUs (commonly called “car computers”). And Japanese carmakers are shutting down the lines. (Read More…)

Nissan has released more teasers for its forthcoming 2011 Quest, and we’re starting to get the feeling that it could just be the first mold-breaking minivan in some time. It’s not necessarily the most exciting looking thing, but under that blunt-nosed skin, this Quest likely boasts the RWD/AWD chassis of the newest Japanese Elgrand van and an optional 3.5 liter VQ V6. We’ll wait for official details before we start getting too crazy, but the possibility of a 300 hp, RWD minivan is a little to perversely thrilling to ignore. With all the talk of “Swagger Wagons” and “Man Vans” lately, Nissan may just have the most exciting minivan since the first-gen Mazda MPV (to date, the only minivan to be appear in a rap video) hiding up its sleeve…

A hybrid version of the Nissan Fuga (better known as the Infiniti M35/45 on these shores) could deliver an up to 90 percent better fuel-efficiency than its  conventionally powered model, Nissan’s chief engineer for hybrid systems told The Nikkei [sub] today.

“We expect fuel economy to improve by 60 percent to 90 percent” over the conventional model, chief engineer Koichi Hayasaki said at a media briefing. (Read More…)