1990 Nissan 300zx Base Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Infiniti brand will finally make its debut in Japan, but not the name

Nissan left the automotive media scratching its collective head when it announced that its Infiniti luxury brand would be renaming all of its vehicles, with cars wearing the Q designation and CUVs/SUVs wearing the QX badge. So the G Sedan became the Q50, and the G Coupe became the Q60. The QX56, meanwhile, became the QX80, and the FX crossover became the QX70. It is still thoroughly confusing nearly a year later.
Not content to confuse its US customers alone, Nissan will be fiddling with the name of one of its most revered Japanese-market models - the Skyline. Rebadged for the US as the Q50, and before that as the G Sedan/Coupe, the new Skyline will wear an Infiniti badge. What makes this truly confusing, though, is that the car won't be called the Infiniti Skyline, despite its badging. It won't even be called the Nissan Skyline, anymore. It's now just the Skyline. Apparently, Nissan thinks it can capitalize on the Skyline's link to the Japanese royal family (the Skyline was originally a product of Prince Motors, which provided vehicles for the Emperor and his family), by ditching any brand names and referring to it as its own model, according to Automotive News.
Now, confusion aside, there are things about Infiniti badging in Japan that make sense. Badging all the Nissans that eventually become Infinitis as Infinitis in the first place goes a long way to make the brand seem separate and distinct from its parent company. Speaking to AN, Infiniti's executive vice president of global product planning, Andy Palmer, puts it this way, "We have to treat Infiniti, if you will, in the same [way] that Volkswagen treats Audi. It's not a Nissan-plus. Infiniti has to stand head-to-head with any of those German competitors."

Nissan e-NV200 electric van will start FedEx testing in DC

The electric van test program that Nissan and FedEx announced today at the Washington Auto Show isn't really all that new. After all, FedEx is already testing the all-electric e-NV200 in Singapore, Japan and Germany. The news today is that FedEx will be one of the first companies to test the EV in the US, and Nissan brought a prototype to the show to gin up interest. 200 CHAdeMO stations were added in December, a monthly record. The e-NV200 uses a powertrain similar to what's in the Nissan Leaf and weighs about the same as that passenger car, but Nissan isn't talking about US performance figures quite yet. Nissan isn't even saying if the vehicle will even come to the US, but this test program sure hints that something like that is in the works. For now, all that's official is that Nissan will bring two - yes, just two - e-NV200 units to the US, letting FedEx test one in the Washington, DC area for between six to eight weeks before cycling the EVs to other companies in the US over the next year. The idea, as you may have guessed, it to gather data on how companies might use this van and let Nissan figure out if it wants to sell the e-NE200 here. The van will start being built in Barcelona, Spain this spring and is currently intended for Europe and Japan. FedEx is no stranger to greener vehicles, and has 167 EVs in its US fleet right now. Read more in the press release below. The e-NV200 can use CHAdeMO fast charging, and Nissan said today that it has helped install 570 of those DC fast chargers in the US since announcing expansion plans last year. At the time, the target was 500 chargers in 18 months, so things are progressing faster than publicly anticipated. In fact, 200 CHAdeMO stations were added in December, a monthly record. Jan. 22, 2014 Nissan and FedEx Express Put All-Electric e-NV200 to Work in Collaborative U.S. Test WASHINGTON, D.C. - FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., and Nissan announced today at the Washington Auto Show that the two companies will begin testing the Nissan e-NV200, a 100 percent electric compact cargo vehicle, under real world conditions in Washington, D.C. This test marks the first time the vehicle will be running in North America. FedEx Express and Nissan have conducted similar e-NV200 tests with fleets in Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Brazil. FedEx and Nissan are both committed to reducing the environmental impact of their operations worldwide.

Nissan, Fisker in advanced talks on investment, partnership

Nissan is in advanced talks to invest in electric vehicle maker Fisker in a deal that could provide the Japanese automaker with access to an electric pickup truck while giving the struggling startup a financial lifeline, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. The deal could close this month, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the talks are ongoing and have not been finalized. Terms being discussed include Nissan investing more than $400 million in Fisker's truck platform and building Fisker's planned Alaska pickup starting in 2026 at one of its U.S. assembly plants, one of the sources said. Nissan would build its own electric pickup on the same platform, the source said. Nissan has U.S. assembly plants in Mississippi and Tennessee. Fisker said on Thursday, when it announced it might not be able to continue as a going concern and would cut 15% of its workforce, that it was in talks with a large automaker for a potential investment and joint development partnership. It did not name the automaker. A Fisker spokesman said the company does not comment on speculation, while Nissan officials were not immediately available to comment. Fisker shares had been down about 45% before the Reuters report but pared those losses and were trading down about 25% with a market capitalization of more than $295 million. The term sheet is ready and the deal is going through due diligence, one of the sources said. Nissan was an EV pioneer with its fully battery powered Leaf hatchback in 2010 but has since struggled in the face of nimbler new entrants. A deal with Fisker would help it move into the growing U.S. electric pickup market. Nissan's talks with Fisker comes in the wake of the former's “rebalanced” relationship with its long-time alliance partner Renault. Last year, Nissan and Renault finalised terms of a restructured alliance after months of negotiations. They aim to have cross-shareholdings of 15% as part of the deal. The more limited alliance removes certain restrictions and has opened the door for Nissan to develop growth plans in areas such as EVs and software independent of Renault, said one of the sources, who is familiar with Nissan's thinking. The Yokohama-headquartered automaker is scouring “many, many opportunities,” the person said.