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Renault-Nissan has sold 200,000 EVs, claims 58 percent global share

The all-electric Renault Zoe sold 10,000 units during its first year on sale and the French automaker has sold a total of about 51,500 EVs since starting sales of its four-vehicle EV lineup in 2011. Renault's collection also includes the Twizy two-seater, the Fluence sedan and the Kangoo van – just look at the awesome concepts from 2009 in the gallery above. Throw in the fact that the Nissan Leaf has sold around 150,000 around the world and some sales of the e-NV200 delivery van, and we get to a banner headline for the Renault-Nissan Alliance: the companies have sold over 200,000 EVs since the Leaf went at sale in the end of 2010. The Alliance announced it crossed the 100,000 EV sales mark in July 2013, so we can calculate that the two companies are selling roughly 6,250 EVs a month, with the Leaf making up the bulk of that figure (the car is averaging around 3,000 units a month in the US alone). Nissan says that Leaf has cumulatively sold around 67,000 Leafs in the US, 46,500 in Japan and 31,000 in Europe. The 6,250 sales per month is a rough estimate, since the Alliance says its sales are up 20 percent this year compared to last. Still, all told, Renault-Nissan claims it has 58 percent of the global market share for EVs, and its battery-powered vehicles have driven four billion kilometers (2.48-billion miles), which has prevented 450 million kilograms of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Who wants to bet when the 300,000 threshold will be crossed? Renault-Nissan Alliance sells its 200,000th electric vehicle Renault-Nissan EVs have driven 4 billion kilometers and enjoy 58% of zero-emission global market share Nissan LEAF remains best-selling EV ever; Renault led in Europe last month Alliance launches monthly video series introducing electric vehicle owners from around the world sharing their personal stories with their zero-emission car PARIS/YOKOHAMA (Nov. 26, 2014)-The Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold its 200,000th electric vehicle and has a leading 58% market share for zero-emission cars. Together, Renault and Nissan EVs have driven approximately 4 billion zero-emission kilometers – enough to circle the earth 100,000 times. Renault-Nissan's EVs represent 200 million liters of fuel saved – enough to fill about 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Alliance EVs also represent 450 million kg of CO2 that has not been emitted while driving.

2016: The year we talked about autonomy a bunch | Autoblog Podcast #497

This week on the Autoblog Podcast, Mike Austin and David Gluckman take a look back at one of the biggest topics of 2016: autonomous driving. The thing is, there was a lot of news about autonomous driving, but not much in the way of autonomous cars you can buy. They also talk about what they've been driving lately - there was a good turbocharged compact car and a not-so-good turbocharged compact car. And then we round out the year with a quick Spend My Money. The podcast will take a break next week, but we'll be back in the new year with reports from CES and the 2017 Detroit Auto Show. And we're lining up some fun guests for future recordings. The rundown is below. Remember, if you have a car-related question you'd like us to answer or you want buying advice of your very own, send a message or a voice memo to podcast at autoblog dot com. (If you record audio of a question with your phone and get it to us, you could hear your very own voice on the podcast. Neat, right?) And please send trivia questions! You'll get the honor of stumping your fellow listeners, and we'll thank you too. Autoblog Podcast #497 Topics and stories we mention 2017 Hyundai Elantra Sport 2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo 2016 Honda Accord V6 (The sedan, but here's our Quick Spin of the coupe for reference) Autonomous Driving Rundown Intro - 00:00 What we're driving - 02:40 Rants (metal trim on steering wheels, learn how your car works) - 14:25 Looking back at autonomous driving in 2016 - 21:10 Spend My Money - 31:20 Total Duration: 37:46 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show on iTunes Podcasts Honda Hyundai Nissan Car Buying Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles nissan sentra

Best cheap SUVs: You don't have to pay a lot to get a lot

Here's a news flash: Everything is a lot more expensive now! And that definitely goes for new SUVs, with prices that keep nudging higher and higher. Actually "nudging" might be too soft of a description for their motion. "Skyrocketing" is probably more accurate.  While higher prices and hefty interest rates have likely knocked a lot of people out of the new car market entirely, there are still quite a few cheap SUV choices. Better still, they're not terrible! Far from it, in fact. While the lowest price SUVs used to be drab, sorry affairs best left to the lots of Avis and Budget, that is definitely not the case today. Not only are there legitimately appealing cheap SUV choices, they offer genuine differences in character, capability and design. It's not just a series of anonymous boxes with different badges. Below you won't just find a simple list of the cheapest SUVs available. We are actually pointing out the best ones. They are listed from least expensive to most expensive, with none exceeding a starting price of $30,000. Most are subcompacts, but a few of our top choices in the compact SUV segment snuck on. Finally, please excuse the crummy photo quality. We sought out representative trim levels of the prices in question rather than just reusing pretty carmaker-provided photos of the most expensive trim levels. This is what the cars will actually look like. Kia Soul Why it stands out: Ample space and abundant features for the money; unique style; strong turbo engine upgrade Could be better: All-wheel drive is not available Starting Price: $21,315 Read our most recent Kia Soul Review The Kia Soul definitely didn't start off as a small SUV, and the term "crossover" is probably better applied to it. Still, what started life as an undefinable funky tall hatchback now finds itself in its third generation with numerous vehicles of similar shape and size that are dubbed "small SUV" or "small crossover." If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... Call it what you will, but the Soul delivers the goods with tons of equipment and space for its price and size, an agreeable driving demeanor, and an even more powerful engine upgrade than the Kona's. We also think it's pretty cool. All of the above helped it win our subcompact SUV comparison test. Now, if there's one area where the Soul does not satisfy a typical SUV requirement, it's the lack of available all-wheel drive.