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Recharge Wrap-up: Custom Nissan Leaf video, Shell's Arctic oil plans

A video shows a customized Nissan Leaf. An owner in Japan slapped a pretty spiffy body kit on his EV, along with some Forgiato custom wheels and brakes. There's no telling what effects these modifications have on the car's aerodynamics or driving range, but it definitely gives the leaf a unique and sporty look. Check it out in the video above, and read more at Ecomento. Shell has big plans to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. With 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil resting beneath those frigid waters, the company sees this new frontier as promising, despite the challenges involved in exploiting it. So far, Shell has spent $7 billion on Arctic operations without having extracted any oil yet. Of course, the idea of Arctic drilling has loads of opposition from concerned individual and organizations concerned with the environmental hazards of extracting oil in the icy north. Read in-depth about Shell's plans at Bloomberg. Ford has won the Altair Enlighten Award for its lightweight technology in the F-150. The award program honors automotive innovations in weight reduction. Ford was recognized for shaving 700 pounds off of the F-150 while improving performance and safety. "It's encouraging to see Ford implementing a holistic lightweighting strategy, which resulted in impressive weight savings that were incredibly significant to the judging panel," says Altair's Vice President of Global Automotive, Dave Mason. General Motors was the runner-up, with its weight savings in the Cadillac ATS and CTS. Read more at PitchEngine. The Diesel Technology Forum has outlined environmental improvements in heavy-duty vehicles at a rulemaking hearing in front of the EPA and NHTSA. Between 2010 and 2014, clean diesel technology reduced carbon emissions equal to that of 2.4 coal-fired power plants, and NOx emissions equal to 158 coal plants. New rules would help further improve the environmental performance of diesel engines. "Advances in diesel engine technology will continue to contribute to the overall efficiency gains of vehicles under this proposed rule," says Diesel Technology Forum Executive Director Allen Schaeffer. "As a result we expect diesel technology to remain the primary power-plant for commercial trucks into the foreseeable future." Read more in the press release below. Clean Diesel Power Key Part of Achieving Future Truck Efficiency Gains, EPA Officials Told -- Diesel Technology Forum CHICAGO, Aug.

Recharge Wrap-up: Nissan "religious" about zero-emissions, Tesla crashes at dealership, Formula E on-board video

Nissan is pretty darn serious about being king of the EV industry. Just see what Chief Planning Officer Andy Palmer has to say at the launch of the e-NV200: "When it comes to zero emissions, we're absolutely religious. We'll be the absolute, No. 1 leader in zero emissions. No doubt. That's our positioning." Bold words, to be sure. Toyota, on the other hand, ended its collaboration with Tesla (whom Nissan mustn't forget about in its quest to reign supreme in the EV world) to build the RAV4 EV, and will focus instead on hybrids and testing the waters with hydrogen cars. Says Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, "I would rather invest my dollars in fuel cell development than in another 2,500 EVs." Read more at Automotive News or Autoweek. To celebrate 25 years of TDI technology, Audi is releasing the A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI Competition special edition in Europe. The Competition uses Audi's biturbocharged, 3.0-liter diesel engine boosted to 326 horsepower, giving the car a 0-62 time of 5.1 seconds. It comes with the S line sport package and is offered in four exterior colors: Daytona Gray, Misano Red, Nardo Gray and Sepang Blue. The interior is black leather, with the option of Misano Red or Agate Gray contrast stitching. The Competition edition will go on sale in August starting at ˆ72,000 (about $97,700). Audi's first Turbocharged Direct Injection engine debuted at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show in the Audi 100 2.5 TDI. See the press release down below for more details. There was another Tesla Model S crash recently, this one at the Tesla Store. The driver apparently crashed the freshly purchased car into the Tesla sign before even making it off the lot. According to Reddit user s1lentway, who was at the Tesla Store in Fremont, California when it happened, "We believe this is someone who just got their car. They must have been driving it for less than a minute and lost control, crashing right into the sign missing the showroom glass windows only by a few inches." Wrecked Exotics suggests the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Probably the best comment in the Reddit post: "Edison strikes again." See the original post at Reddit for more corny jokes, speculation and similar stories from other users. Take a lap in a Formula E racecar. The video below offers up the sights and sounds of a hot, wet lap in the open-cockpit, all-electric Spark-Renault SRT_01E.

Renault and Nissan forge deeper alliance

If the automotive industry's current era could be summarized by one trend - from a corporate aspect, anyway - surely it would be conglomeration. But of all the major auto groups that have emerged over the past several years, none have kept themselves at arm's length quite like the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Much like Fiat and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan are presided over by a common chief executive. But whereas Sergio Marchionne's Italian-American alliance has moved swiftly from a transatlantic partnership to a merged company in the span of less than five years, Carlos Ghosn's Franco-Japanese alliance has stood oceans apart since 1999. But now the Renault-Nissan Alliance is following the lead set by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in bridging that distance through several key measures.
For one, Renault and Nissan will make increased use of common platforms, R&D, systems and testing. The two automakers will also cooperate more closely on manufacturing and supply chain management, purchasing and human resources. To manage the increased cooperation, the alliance has appointed several new executive vice presidents from within its ow ranks and a new management committee to be chaired by Ghosn, details about which you can read in the press release below.