2010 Nissan Sentra Sl Sedan I4 2.0 Automatic on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Renault board names Ghosn stand-ins, as tensions with Nissan increase

PARIS/TOKYO — French carmaker Renault tapped its chief operating officer and a senior board member to fill in for embattled boss Carlos Ghosn, after an investigation by alliance partner Nissan led to his arrest on suspicion of financial misconduct. Thierry Bollore, Ghosn's operational second-in-command, will become deputy chief executive, while lead independent director Philippe Lagayette assumes the function of interim chairman, Renault said after a board meeting late on Tuesday. But the board refrained from firing Ghosn while awaiting more detail on the allegations — in a decision that could also buy more time for an accelerated, permanent succession process. "Mr. Ghosn, temporarily incapacitated, remains Chairman and Chief Executive Officer," Renault said in a statement. "During this period, the board will meet on a regular basis under the chairmanship of the lead independent director." Ghosn, one of the car industry's best-known leaders, was arrested on Monday after Nissan said he had engaged in years of wrongdoing, including personal use of company money and under-reported earnings. The Japanese company plans to remove him as chairman on Thursday. The French government, Renault's biggest shareholder, had begun to distance itself from Ghosn, calling for new interim leadership before the meeting, as the Japanese investigation expanded to include Renault-Nissan alliance finances. "Carlos Ghosn is no longer in a position where he is capable of leading Renault," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier in the day. "Renault has been weakened, which makes it all the more necessary to act quickly." Statements by Le Maire, Renault and its board all echoed French preoccupations over the future of the alliance first articulated by President Emmanuel Macron within hours of Ghosn's arrest on Monday. Following talks between Le Maire and his Japanese counterpart Hiroshige Seko on Tuesday, the ministers reaffirmed their "shared wish to maintain this winning cooperation." But in a sign that Nissan may now seek to loosen its French parent's hold on the partnership, the Japanese company informed Renault it also had evidence of potential wrongdoing at Renault-Nissan BV, the Dutch venture overseeing alliance operations under Renault's ultimate control, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Apple iTunes Radio picks Nissan as first automotive launch partner

With the launch of iOS 7 last week, those who carry around a certain fruit-branded cellphone got access to a new technology called iTunes Radio. Apple's delayed entry into a market currently dominated by service such as Spotify and Pandora, iTunes Radio allows users to create their own stations or to choose from a number of featured stations. From there, listeners can fine tune their results to deliver more popular songs or newer, deeper tracks. Each song is linked back to the iTunes store, allowing users to easily buy songs they fall in love with.
Now, Nissan has teamed with Apple as the exclusive launch partner for iTunes Radio. This partnership means you'll be seeing some Nissan-specific content when you're surfing through iTunes Radio, with some subtler stuff in the form of material and some not-so-subtle approaches, like Nissan's use of iAd, a system that allows developers to directly insert advertisements into apps. The focus at first will be on the upcoming Rogue, the redesigned Versa Note and the Leaf EV.
Nissan's vice president of marketing in North America, Jon Brancheau, explained the team up, saying, "We see iTunes Radio as an integral part of our new vehicle launches and 'big moments,' riding the wave of interest and usage of this exciting new service to maximize exposure of Nissan's new models." Take a look below for the rundown from Nissan.

This map reveals the cleanest vehicles based on location

Naysayers love to point out how dirty the electricity grid mix is when it comes to charging electric vehicles. Curmudgeons are eager to jump into any conversation about EVs to enlighten the lucky listeners about how plug-in cars contribute to pollution, sometimes even throwing in a dash of climate-change denial for good measure. (Thanks, buddy. Pray, tell me more about the plight of oppressed SUV owners.) Unless someone buys an EV just because they think they're cool (which, yeah, they often are), they probably have at least a passable understanding of their environmental pros and cons. As many EV owners are already aware, location has a lot to do with any particular plug-in car's carbon footprint. Still, there's always more to know, and knowledge is not a bad thing, especially if one uses it to do the right thing. That's why this handy-dandy map from Carnegie Mellon University is so interesting. CMU researchers have compiled information about the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of various EVs based on where they're charged, as compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. The researchers looked at the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Prius Plug-In Hybrid versus the gasoline-dependent Toyota Prius hybrid and the stop-start-equipped Mazda3 with i-ELOOP and compared grams of CO2 emitted per mile. CMU takes into account the grid mix, ambient temperature, and driving patterns. CMU takes into account the grid mix based on county, as well as ambient temperature and driving patterns in terms of miles traveled on the highway or in the city. For instance, if you drive a Nissan Leaf in urban areas of California, Texas, or Florida, your carbon footprint is lower than it would be if you were driving a standard Toyota Prius. However, if you charge your Leaf in the Midwest or the South, for the most part, you've got a larger carbon footprint than the Prius. If you live in the rural Midwest, you'd probably even be better off driving a Mazda3. Throughout the country, the Chevrolet Volt has a larger carbon footprint than the Toyota Prius, but a smaller one than the Mazda3 in a lot of urban counties in the US. The Prius and Prius Plug-In are relatively equal across the US. Having trouble keeping it straight? That's not surprising. The comparisons between plug-in and gasoline vehicles are much more nuanced than the loudest voices usually let on.