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Nissan driver drifts on snowy roads during news broadcast

During a New York reporter's live broadcast during Monday night's snowstorm, one driver couldn't help but show how much fun a little powder can be. Stacey Bell of NBC 4 New York was doing what is known in the biz as a 'standup' on a street corner as the snow began to pile up. As she reported on the dangers of driving in the snow, the camera operator closed in on a row of cars stopped at a traffic light. When the light turned green, one car slid across the street toward Bell, who didn't skip a beat. After stopping a few feet away from the journalist, the driver peels away. While some outlets are reporting that Bell had a close call with an out-of-control car, the driver's gleeful acceleration away from the limelight in a RWD Nissan 240SX make us side with Road and Track's opinion that the driver was simply showing off for the cameras. Weird Car News Nissan Videos snow

Nissan sees its EV sales surging to 1 million annually by 2022

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan announced plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) annually by 2022, a six-fold jump from what it sold last year, and said it had no plans to stop testing its self-driving cars on public roads, calling them safe. Japan's No. 2 automaker and its rivals are planning to crank up development and production of electric cars in response to tightening emissions regulations around the world, even as demand for such vehicles remains limited due to their high cost and limited charging infrastructure. Launched as the world's first mass-market all-battery EV in 2010, Nissan's Leaf compact hatchback is the world's best-selling EV, though sales have been just around 300,000 units in its lifetime. The company now plans to focus its lower-emissions lineup on all-battery and gasoline-hybrid EVs rather than costlier technologies including plug-in hybrids. Nissan said on Friday it would develop eight new all-battery EVs over the next five years, including four models for China. Its luxury Infiniti brand would begin carrying new electric models from 2021, it added. Through 2022, vehicles powered by its "e-Power" gasoline-hybrid technology would likely comprise the majority of Nissan's electric line-up, it said. Such vehicles use gasoline to power the car's motor, requiring a much smaller battery than EVs and therefore are less expensive to produce. "The heart of our strategy in terms of electrification is battery EVs and e-Power technology," Nissan Chief Planning Officer Philippe Klein told reporters at a briefing. Concerns about EV battery costs and components have prompted many automakers to develop a variety of lower emissions technologies, but Klein said that Nissan would largely forego plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell technologies, given their low cost-performance at the moment. In 2017, Nissan sold 163,000 electric vehicles globally. Nissan and its automaking partners, Renault and Mitsubishi, together plan to launch 17 electric models as part of their strategy to achieve annual vehicle sales totaling 14 million units by 2022, compared with 10.6 million units in 2017. Self-driving tests to continue Automakers and technology companies are facing mounting pressure to prove that their automated driving functions under development are safe to use on public roads following a fatal accident involving a self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] in the United States earlier this week.

Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf sales show big drops in September

As most readers likely know, it's not just lower gas prices that are affecting plug-in vehicle sales. The two long-time sales leaders in the US - the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt - are getting long in the tooth. First introduced in late 2010, the vehicles have been updated here and there since then, but recent sales figures have been lagging behind where they were in 2014. This trend continued in September, with sales of both vehicles down in a big way compared to last year. Sales of Nissan Leaf totaled 1,247 for the month of September. This is down a whopping 56.7 percent from September 2014, but thankfully the year-to-date sales are not quite as negative. So far this year, Nissan has sold 13,630 Leafs, which is "just" 37.5 percent lower tan the YTD total at this point in 2014 (21,822). This decrease swims against the overall direction of Nissan's September sales, which were up 18 percent over last year and set a new September record. The Volt sold 949 units last month, down 31.9 percent from last September. Year to date, the Volt has sold 9,264 units, which is 36.3 percent lower than the number of Volts that were sold in the first nine months of 2014 (14,540). This downward trend might be coming to an end soon. The new Chevy Volt will go on sale in 11 US states later this fall, and the 2017 model will be available nationwide next spring. An updated Leaf for the 2016 model year also offers more miles – 107, vs 84 in the 2015 version – so potential customers who have been waiting for the latest and greatest will soon not have any excuses. We'll have our broader look at green car sales in the US up soon. Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid ev sales hybrid sales volt