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Ghosn hedges Nissan's 2020 autonomous deadline

Three years ago, Nissan was one of the first companies to promise a hands-free autonomous car by 2020. According Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn, when and how much we'll be able to take our hands off the wheel depends on more than just the components in the car. At a press conference during this year's Frankfurt Motor Show, the head of the Renault-Nissan Alliance said, "No matter how fast the technology develops, the autonomous cars are very dependent on the regulation." Basically Ghosn is saying that Nissan will be ready, but the laws allowing hands-free driving might not be so prompt. "You can build a lot of autonomy, but if the consumer or the driver cannot enjoy it because he still has to have his hands on the wheel, he still has to have his eyes on the road, it just puts cost in the car without the benefit," said Ghosn. The overall tone of Ghosn's comments was that Nissan is ready for autonomous driving, but without clear laws there could be no point in offering the technology to consumers. Ghosn also clarified what autonomous driving means in Nissan terms, clarifying a statement last year where he said a consumer product is still a long way off. The company's three-step plan begins next year, "where you can be on the highway as long as you don't change lanes and you can be in autonomous mode." Then in 2018, these systems will be able to change lanes without human intervention. For the final step in 2020, "We're going to have cars capable in the city and on the highway to make more complicated operations [in an] autonomous way," said Ghosn. "That's why I think when you talk about autonomous cars, we have to be much more specific about what kind of autonomy are we talking about... but we maintain our forecast that is going to come in different waves, and we define our waves by the functionality of autonomy in our cars [in] '16, '18, '20." That said, don't skip your driver's license renewal five years from now. According to Ghosn, you won't see a Nissan without a steering wheel. That's both Nissan's goal, and the company's way around the lack of regulation on driverless cars. "Frankly, a car without a driver is not our priority... There is a driver, and we are putting some functions into the car, allowing the driver to drive when they want, and to stop driving when they want... These are the same pieces of technology, which in addition to others, can lead you to the car without the driver.

Mitsubishi and Nissan teaming up on electric kei car

Nissan and Mitsubishi have announced plans to build an electric kei car together. The yet-unnamed car would mark a major step towards electrification of Japan's popular supercompact segment. The car will be powered by a 20 kWh battery and will be engineered to cover daily driving duties in a Japanese driving cycle. The car can also double as a mobile power source or power a home in emergency situations. Nissan says the car will measure 134 inches long, 58 inches wide, and 65 inches tall, in order to comply with laws limiting kei car size. The companies state that the car will be developed by NMKV Co., Ltd., a joint-venture that stands for Nissan Mitsubishi Kei Vehicle. Each carmaker owns a 50 percent stake, and already jointly builds models such as the feline favorite Nissan Dayz, which Mitsubishi sells as the eK. In reality, that likely means Mitsubishi will be developing the car and Nissan will simply slap a badge on it. Nissan has not traditionally built kei cars, choosing instead to rebadge those made by Suzuki or Mitsubishi. In fact, Mitsubishi built the first electric kei car, the i-Miev, way back in 2009, and it was actually sold in the U.S. until 2017. The jellybean-shaped EV was a pioneer in the field, but its 62-mile range from a 16 kWh lithium-ion battery showed the limitations of the technology at the time. Mitsubishi moved about 32,000 of them before they pulled the plug, with a pre-tax-credit price ranging from $23,000 to $31,000. The new Nissan-Mitsubishi kei car will land at around 2 million yen, or $18,200. The price, while slightly more expensive than a gasoline counterpart, bucks predictions from analysts that said prices would skyrocket by 66 to 120 percent if kei cars were forced to electrify. A petrol-powered Nissan Dayz starts at around $15,200. Size-wise, the two share a similar footprint as they are governed by kei car size limits. The special class of cars get unique license plates and other registration cost benefits due to their compact dimensions. A BMW i3 would exceed those boundaries due to its 158-inch length and 70-inch width. However, the larger EV comes equipped with a substantially bigger 42.2 kWh battery good for 152 miles of range. Though no photos have been released, we predict it will look like the iMk concept (pictured above). The car will go on sale in spring 2022. Related Video This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Why it's difficult to accurately test the efficiency of a plug-in car

When it comes to electric vehicles and plug-ins in general, the Environmental Protection Agency-certified range is a hugely important number. While actual range anxiety is largely psychological, the magic number does provide a point of comparison of buyers considering one EV over another. The driving distance is also often touted by automakers when marketing their models. Unfortunately, as Green Car Reports finds in a recent deep dive, the way the EPA calculates the figure is a convoluted mess, and discovering the reasons why is definitely worth the read. The issue isn't about bad science but instead comes down to vague wording. The EPA's accepted range test is sourced from an evaluation called J-1634 from the Society of Automotive Engineers, and it seems to provide balanced results for vehicles that automatically reach a single state of charge when plugged in. However for models with multiple charge settings, the situation gets complicated very quickly. Of course, these modes are often created in the software, meaning that a car's certified driving distance can change with just a few taps of the keyboard without the real world results owners might experience actually changing. By showing the test's effects on the certified range for the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf and Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive over the last few years, Green Car Reports makes a compelling argument that it's the evaluation that needs to change. Thankfully, it appears that the solution is a very simple one. Get the details here.