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Nissan Pathfinder, Infiniti JX in transmission safety probe

Nissan may be forced to recall 110,000 Pathfinder and Infiniti JX35 crossovers, due to a number of customer complaints. Consumers report suddenly losing power, with repair facilities blaming the issue on faulty transmission cooler line connections. Both the Pathfinder and JX35 use a continuously variable transmission. As of right now, the only vehicles being investigated are from model year 2013.
Nissan has been cooperating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a report from Reuters, and it has developed a fix for the affected vehicles. It's not clear whether this will develop into a full-blown recall, as there have been no known cases of injuries or crashes. But with a potential 110,000 vehicles prone to sudden power loss, a recall seems to be a likely outcome.

Nissan teases sedan concept for Beijing [w/video]

Nissan is giving us the first tease of its creatively named New Sedan Concept that is premiering at the Beijing Motor Show on April 20. The single image shows the vehicle wearing a diaphanous robe that is just translucent enough to make out its headlights, V-shaped grille and badge. The rest is still a mystery.
The New Sedan Concept is aimed at young, digitally focused Chinese buyers, according to Nissan. Its look came from a collaboration between the company's design centers in China and Japan and was led by Chief Creative Officer Shiro Nakamura. However, the teaser certainly makes the New Sedan look a lot like the Sport Sedan Concept from the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. Hopefully, this is truly a new model and not just a repaint.
Scroll down for the full press release and a video of executive design director Mamoru Aoki discussing the new concept and previous ones.

Nissan: We lose money on each Leaf replacement battery

Nissan has been playing its cards pretty close to its chest when it comes to the production costs for Leaf battery packs. The company recently put a price on replacement batteries for customers at $5,500 plus the requirement to return the old battery. If the decommissioned battery is worth $1,000 to Nissan, as they have stated, that means the battery costs about $6,500 to make, right? Maybe even less if Nissan wants to turn a profit, as automakers are wont to do? Wrong.
Green Car Reports spoke to Nissan about these battery costs, and found that the automaker actually loses money on selling the replacement battery for the Leaf at the current price. Jeff Kuhlman, Nissan's vice president of global communications said, "Nissan makes zero margin on the replacement program. In fact, we subvent every exchange." All you English majors will know that "subvent" is a fancy way to say "subsidize." Kuhlman added, though, "We have yet to sell one battery as part of the program."
The fact that Nissan offers its replacement batteries for less than it costs to manufacture them is telling of a company both cares about what its customer needs and is dedicated to the success of its product. In this case, both of those things encourage people to give up fossil fuels and adopt electric mobility, which is heartening. As more people switch to battery-powered driving, though, battery technology should become better and cheaper, and the scale of production should cause manufacturing costs to decrease. Eventually, Nissan could easily see itself breaking even selling the Leaf battery replacements.