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Nissan executive Jun Seki resigns to become president of Nidec

YOKOHAMA, Japan — The executive tasked with leading a recovery at Nissan said he had decided to resign just weeks into his new job, a move that could disrupt the automaker's push to turn the corner on scandal and slumping sales. Jun Seki, Nissan's vice chief operating officer and a former contender for chief executive, told Reuters he was leaving to become the president of Nidec, a Kyoto-based manufacturer of automotive components and precision motors. He will likely depart in January after three decades at Nissan, including a stint heading its China business. "I love Nissan and I feel bad about leaving the turnaround work unfinished, but I am 58 years old, and this is an offer I could not refuse. It's probably my last chance to lead a company too," he said in a brief interview. "It's not about money. In fact, I will take a financial hit since Nissan pays us well," Seki said. He declined to elaborate further. Nissan and Nidec declined to comment. Seeking to roll back some of the costly expansion under ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn, Nissan has embarked on wide-ranging turnaround plan. That plan, which began in April, is now on track to generate a cumulative few hundred billion yen in cost cuts and operational efficiency gains by the year to March 2022, according to two Nissan sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. One hundred billion yen is roughly equal to $915 million (707 million pounds). Adding to concerns about disruption among Nissan's top management, the sources said that Seki, Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta and Chief Executive Makoto Uchida have so far failed to gel as a team after being named to their posts in October. They officially took over on Dec. 1. "There was no instant, cohesive chemistry achieved by those appointments," one of the sources said. Gupta and Uchida were not immediately available for comment. Seki's resignation could further complicate Nissan's relationship with top shareholder Renault SA. Seki recently worked in Paris for a year and was seen as relatively close to the French automaker. PERSUADED IN THE END Asked if he was leaving Nissan because he was passed over for the role of chief executive, Seki said that was not the case but did not elaborate. He and Uchida, most recently the head of the China business, had been seen as top contenders for the CEO job. Reuters reported in September that Uchida was seen as more favored by Renault.

2016 Nissan Titan endures more torture testing

The burly, next-gen 2016 Nissan Titan XD made its big debut at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show and promised to launch later in the year with multiple bed lengths, several cab configurations and the choice of a Cummins 5.0-liter diesel V8 pumping out 310 horsepower and 555 pound-feet of torque. While we wait for the truck to arrive at dealerships, the brand is continuing to tell the pickup's development story through the Titan Truckumentary series of shorts videos. Nissan has already used the clips to look back at its pickup history, but the latest entry puts the focus directly on the new Titan, specifically, its torture testing during development. One trial bounced the truck around for months on a durability machine to simulate 370,000 miles of rough driving. Although, the true fun comes from watching the real-life evaluations where engineers slam the model into curbs and drive it off ledges to see what it can take.

Nissan breaks annual EV sales record with two months to spare

Nissan has sold more pure EVs in the US this year than any other automaker, ever. And there are still two selling months left. Last year, Nissan sold a record 22,610 Leaf electric vehicles in the US. This year, through the end of September, Nissan sold 21,822 Leafs and has been selling more than 2,000 a month for the last seven months (in some cases, over 3,000). Basic math skills make it clear that 2014 would handily beat 2013, so now we get to play the guessing game to figure out by how much. Nissan isn't yet saying what October sales were (the month isn't over yet, and we're expecting the numbers on Monday) but if we look up the general trend for the last quarter of 2013, sales stayed steady (compared to the previous months) in October and November and then shot up in December. Given the overall increase in 2014 versus 2013 (up 36 percent through the end of September), who wants to bet that Nissan will sell more than 30,000 Leafs this year? Anyone? Compare Leaf sales with the other plug-in vehicle that went on sale alongside the Leaf at the end of 2010: the Chevy Volt sold over 23,000 units in 2012 and 2013 but is way down so far this year (14,540 through the end of September). An updated Volt will go on sale in the second half of 2015. Nissan has not disclosed when a new Leaf will go on sale. Nissan has sold over 142,000 first-gen Leafs around the world and over 64,000 in the US. Nissan LEAF sets annual U.S. electric vehicle sales record - again NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With more than two months remaining, Nissan LEAF has shattered the record for the most U.S. electric vehicle sales in a single calendar year, surpassing the previous record of 22,610 that it set in 2013. "With nearly 20 electric cars or plug-in hybrid models on the road today, Nissan LEAF remains at the head of the class, outselling the nearest competitor by 50 percent through September," said Brendan Jones, director, Nissan electric vehicle Sales and Infrastructure. "Since the initial launch in 2010 our primary goal is to bring electric vehicles to the mass market in a practical and fun-to-drive package, and we continue to deliver electric cars to more new buyers than anyone else." LEAF sales in 2014 through September are up more than 36 percent compared to the same period last year. With more than 142,000 LEAF sales globally since launch and more than 64,000 of those in the U.S., Nissan is the global leader in electric vehicles. (Nissan will announce October U.S. sales on Monday, Nov.