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Demand for electric car rentals unplugged by range anxiety

It's the hurdle that electric vehicles must clear to be launched into the mainstream: range anxiety. But this time it isn't prospective customers who worry about running out of juice, Bloomberg reports, but renters who return to car rental agencies before their lease is up and trade their EVs in for more traditional gasoline-powered autos and gas-electric hybrids.
"People are very keen to try [electric vehicles], but they will switch out of the contract part way through ... they think they can't get to a charging station," says Lee Broughton, head of sustainability at Enterprise. Enterprise customers who rent EVs reportedly trade them in 1.6 days into the rental period on average, which compares unfavorably to the six- to seven-day rental periods of traditional, fuel-burning automobiles.
Christopher Agnew, an analyst at MKM Holdings LLC, says that longer range would help rental customers' range anxiety, especially since they are usually renting vehicles in unfamiliar places.

Nissan bringing 'New Sedan Concept' to Beijing Motor Show

During the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, Nissan showed off its Sport Sedan Concept (pictured above), an orange creation meant to foreshadow the next generation of the brand's "Four-Door Sports Car," the Maxima. For the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, though, Nissan is going to deliver a Chinese take on a future four-door, with the New Sedan Concept (imaginative name, we know).
Like the Nissan Friend-Me Concept from the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show, the NSC has been designed by Nissan Design China in Beijing. Outside of that, information is in short supply. Nissan claims this latest concept is targeted at the Chinese digital lifestyle. Whether it serves as an evolution of the Friend-Me's swoopy design or a regional take on Nissan's Detroit concept, though, remains to be seen.
We'll have the full slate of info on the Nissan New Sedan Concept, along with everything else that happens at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, when the floor opens on April 23. Take a look below for the official press release from Nissan, which also includes a recap of previously debuted models that will be shown at Beijing.

Mercedes and Infiniti confirm joint production in Mexico [w/video]

It's official, folks: After initial reports last week indicated that Mercedes-Benz was preparing to begin assembly at the Nissan plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, the two parent companies have announced just that. Only instead of using the existing Nissan plant at the site (in operation since 1992), Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance have announced a joint venture to build a new one alongside it.
The latest stage in the growing French-German-Japanese collaboration is part of a new collaboration that will see Infiniti and Mercedes jointly develop and build a line of compact premium vehicles, with the first Infiniti models set to roll off the assembly line in 2017 and the first Benzes to follow a year later. Neither party announced exactly which models that would encompass, but Mercedes already has a robust line of small vehicles (including the A-Class, B-Class, CLA and GLA), and Infiniti has long been toying with the idea of slotting in something smaller below the Q50.
The billion-euro project, split evenly between the two industrial giants, is set to create 5,700 new jobs in Mexico. In addition to the Aguascalientes project, Infiniti and Mercedes are also undertaking joint production of four-cylinder engines (initially for the C-Class and Q50) in Decherd, Tennessee, from which they will be exported around the world. By the time the new factory in Mexico reaches full capacity in 2021, it will have the capability to produce 300,000 vehicles annually. That's on top of the 850,000 vehicles the existing facility is capable of handling.