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Carlos Ghosn, a year after arrest, still seeks trial date and access to evidence

TOKYO — A year after his arrest, Nissan ex-Chairman Carlos Ghosn remains stuck in Tokyo under stringent bail conditions and without a trial date as he seeks access to a trove of Nissan emails and other evidence to fight charges of financial misconduct. His lawyers have asked a court to grant access to 6,000 pieces of evidence collected from Nissan such as electronic communications, which they say is crucial for a fair trial, showed an Oct. 4 court filing seen by Reuters. The once-feted executive has spent 129 days in detention since his arrest shortly after his private jet touched down at a Tokyo airport on Nov. 19, 2018. He faces four charges — which he denies — including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East. Nissan sacked Ghosn, saying its internal investigations revealed misconduct ranging from understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5 million of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest. An earlier court ruling allowed prosecutors to hand back evidence to Nissan during pretrial wrangling over witnesses and evidence similar to the U. S. discovery process. If prosecutors are "given the freedom to unilaterally delete the collected evidence and return it to relevant parties, this is equivalent to granting the investigative agencies the right to destroy evidence," showed the filing to the Tokyo District Court. The lawyers also asked the court to rescind the earlier ruling, saying some evidence could be erased by Nissan to protect confidential business information. They argued the "ruling deprives Mr. Ghosn of his right to receive a fair public trial by an impartial court," as it enabled prosecutors to view and use the evidence and withhold it from the defense. Prosecutors are not required to hand over all evidence they or the police gather during investigations unless ordered by the court, unlike in the U.S. discovery process where prosecutors and defense lawyers disclose the evidence they intend to present in court. A spokeswoman for the Tokyo prosecutors' office said the office could not comment on individual cases. A Nissan spokeswoman declined to comment. Ghosn's lawyers have also asked the court to dismiss all charges against him, accusing prosecutors of colluding with government officials and Nissan executives to oust him to block any takeover of the automaker by French alliance partner Renault SA, of which Ghosn was also chairman.

2023 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV gets more power, EV range

It's been quite awhile coming, but the key details of the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV are finally here: electric range, horsepower and pricing. And they're all increases over the old model, mostly in good ways. Like before, the Outlander PHEV runs mainly as a series hybrid, with forward propulsion coming from a pair of electric motors (one front, one rear). The naturally aspirated 2.4-liter four-cylinder mainly acts as a generator, though it can provide direct power in certain circumstances. Overall output is 248 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque. Supplying electric power is a 20-kWh battery pack, a touch more than 6-kWh greater than the old pack. The bigger battery boosts electric range to 38 miles. Interestingly, Mitsubishi continues to also offer the ability to charge at a DC fast charger. At 38 minutes to charge to 80%, it's not especially fast compared with many modern electric cars, but it's a neat option that few plug-in hybrids offer. Overall fuel economy is rated at 64 mpg-e, which is actually worse than the outgoing model that got 74 mpg-e. We're not entirely sure what resulted in the lower overall number, since fuel economy when running on a depleted battery wasn't given. We would expect numbers close to the regular Outlander, which gets 26 to 27 mpg in combined driving depending on configuration.  The price also goes up. At $41,190, it's $2,690 more than the old model. But that seems fairly reasonable considering the additional electric range and power, not to mention the fact that the powertrain is packaged in the vastly improved new Outlander chassis with its more attractive styling and nicer interior. It also finds itself priced carefully between the slightly more expensive RAV4 Prime (which has a bit more electric range and more power) and the Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid (which is front-drive only and just one mile less range). Both those options are more efficient overall, as is the most affordable Tucson PHEV, though it's only available in select states and has the lowest range at 33 miles. It does offer a bit more power than the Mitsubishi, though. The 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV goes on sale first in select states around November, but will be offered nationwide a little later. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

NHTSA releases updated Takata airbag recalled cars list, but it still has errors

Unfortunately, the government's list still contains errors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued an updated list of vehicle models that it's urging owners to repair under the mushrooming Takata airbag inflator recall. The latest version adds vehicles from new automakers like Subaru and Ford that are missing from the original announcement, and it also removes erroneous entries from General Motors, leaving only the 2005 Saab 9-2X (a reskinned Subaru WRX), and the 2003-2005 Pontiac Vibe, a joint project with Toyota.