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Nissan rolls Versa Note inside world's largest zorb [w/video]

With features like lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring and moving object detection bundled into its Safety Shield suite, Nissan touts the Versa Note as among the safer vehicles on the road. And to highlight that, the Japanese automaker has taken its diminutive hatchback Zorbing.
Zwhat now, you ask? Zorbing. It's a sport (really more of a recreational activity, if you ask us) that involves getting into a giant inflatable ball, rolling down a slope and, well... that's about the extent of it. It's the same thing we did on hills as kids, only with more plastic. And ridicule.
The CarZorb which Nissan had crafted for the Note measures 60 feet around and weighs a metric ton. Nissan tested the device, which took two months to make, at a "top secret military training facility in the UK," then placed the hatchback inside and rolled it down a hill, all for the sake of the two-minute video clip below. So we hope you enjoy.

Nissan testing experimental dealer with no desks or offices

Nissan thinks it has found a better way to sell cars, and it involves stripping showrooms of everything but the cars and sales team. The brand calls the experiment the Nissan New Retail Concept, and it might get tested in the US in a few years.
The concept is relatively simple. Showrooms ditch offices, reception counters, cubicles and desks. Instead salespeople walk around inside and outside the dealer with mobile devices to assist customers and even complete sales. Associates are trained to take immediate responsibility for each visitor they encounter. For example, if owners comes inside with a problem with their vehicle, the employee escorts them to the service department and introduces them.
A dealer in London has been testing the new layout for the last nine months, and so far it reports better customer satisfaction, loyalty and most importantly higher sales. Nissan next plans to launch test stores in Moscow and Stuttgart. Then it will broaden out to more of Western Europe and finally will be tested in the Japan, the US and the Middle East, according to Automotive News.

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.