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New allegations against Ghosn concern payments to Saudi businessman

BEIJING – Fresh misconduct allegations brought by Tokyo prosecutors against ousted Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn center on the use of company funds to pay a Saudi businessman who is believed to have helped him out of financial difficulties, two company sources with knowledge of the matter said. Prosecutors arrested Ghosn for a third time on Friday, accusing him of aggravated breach of trust in transferring personal investment losses to the automaker. The prosecutors' statement said they believe that around October 2008, Ghosn was trying to deal with losses on paper of 1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million) incurred on a swap contract he had with a bank which it did not name. A person helped arrange a letter of credit for Ghosn and a company run by the person later received $14.7 million in Nissan funds in four installments between 2009 and 2012, the statement said, adding that the payments were made in Ghosn's and the person's interests. "By doing so, (Ghosn) behaved in a way that breached trust, and inflicted damage on the property of Nissan," the statement said. The statement also said Ghosn had earlier sought to have Nissan shoulder the appraisal losses directly. According to the Nissan sources who have knowledge of the company's probe into its former chief, the person who helped Ghosn is Khaled Al-Juffali, vice chairman of one of Saudi Arabia's largest conglomerates, E. A. Juffali and Brothers, and a member of the board at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. He is also majority owner of a company called Al-Dahana which owns half of a regional joint venture called Nissan Gulf with the other half held by a wholly owned unit of Nissan Motor. Sheikh Khaled Juffali has no comment on this subject, according to an emailed statement from E. A. Juffali and Brothers. Ghosn's Tokyo-based lawyer, Motonari Otsuru, was unavailable for comment on this article, according to a person who answered the phone at his law office. A representative for the Ghosn family declined to comment. Other media have said Ghosn has through a lawyer denied that he shifted losses to Nissan and has told investigators that the four payments were for legitimate business purposes, including a reward for handling problems at Nissan dealers in Saudi Arabia. Tokyo prosecutors declined to comment. Asked about Ghosn's reported comments, a Nissan spokesman said: "We cannot comment on matters related to Ghosn's arrest for breach of trust.

Nissan battery breakthrough to double Leaf EV range within a few years

The Tesla Model S might be the headline-grabber of the electric vehicle world, but the Nissan Leaf is the segment's secret star. With over 130,000 sold worldwide since its introduction and record US sales in 2014, the little hatchback has helped its parents at the Renault-Nissan Alliance to sell over 200,000 EVs since 2010. With that much success in the EV business, there's no reason for the automaker to stop now, and according to CEO Carlos Ghosn a huge technological breakthrough is on the way to make plug-ins an attractive choice for more drivers than ever before. In an interview on Japanese TV, Ghosn confirmed that Nissan has a new battery that could allow for over 400 kilometers (249 miles) of range. New batteries could "very soon take the issue of range off of the table." – Jeff Kuhlman Ghosn was tight-lipped on the details of the tech, but Daily Kanban dug deeper. An unnamed Nissan engineer confirmed that the roughly 250-mile range would be for a Leaf-sized vehicle – a massive leap over the hatchback's current EPA-rated max of 84 miles or 124 miles in Europe. The battery reportedly offers twice the capacity, while bringing weight and costs down compared to the present version. "Commercial applications could be no more than one model cycle away," said the anonymous worker, making the innovation sound even more tantalizing. Lending even more credence to this major battery innovation, Nissan spokesperson Jeff Kuhlman told Daily Kanban: "We continue our R&D efforts because we believe that we can do more with battery electric, and very soon take the issue of range off of the table." Renault-Nissan is betting a huge portion of its chips on the future of battery electric vehicles. The company even tried stuffing a 48-kilowatt hour pack into a Leaf for an event in Spain last year. While not its primary focus, the automaker is hedging its bets slightly by working with Daimler and Ford on fuel cell innovations, as well.

'Charge lock' on Nissan Leaf doesn't actually prevent cable theft

Is it a feature or a bug? According to AutoblogGreen reader Francois Viau, the locking mechanism that holds the 110V trickle charge cable to his Nissan Leaf is too weak, and that's a problem. That's because while he thought the cable was locked to his car during a charge session at work, someone stole the cable, and it cost him $2,200 to replace it (in Canadian dollars, from the Nissan dealer). To see just how easy it is to unlock the mechanism, Viau had a "small assistant" jimmy it open with a plastic comb on video (watch it below). "The charge lock feature on Nissan Leaf is not intended to prevent theft of the charging cordset." – Brian Brockman We wondered if this was a common problem and, through the magic of Facebook, we had AutoblogGreen reader Phil Tipper try it out on his 2013 SL Leaf. He said he used an insulated handle flat screwdriver and was not able to defeat the lock. "I admit that I didn't want to force the mechanism for fear of breaking it, it didn't look like that kid used much force at all," he said. "Maybe this guy's mechanism was damaged in the theft and now it's very easy to trip the lock out of the way." Fifty percent of a sample size of two isn't a reliable metric, but if you're worried about locking your cable in place, you can see some of Viau's anti-theft solutions here (in French, with pictures). Turns out, though, that the white plastic bit that prevents the cable handle from working during a charge isn't really an anti-theft device. Brian Brockman, senior manager of corporate communications for Nissan North America, told AutoblogGreen that, "The charge lock feature on Nissan Leaf is not intended to prevent theft of the charging cordset. It is designed to discourage someone from unplugging the vehicle while a charging session is in progress. The trickle charge cable features a small hole in the release button to allow the owner to insert a lock to reduce the chance of theft." So, now you know. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.