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Ghosn says having Apple in EV business would be good news

Nissan once promised to have commercially viable autonomous vehicles on the road by 2020 and even certified a Leaf to test the technology in Japan. The company has since backpedaled a bit from its original lofty claims, though. During CEO Carlos Ghosn's keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the auto exec talked more about the automaker's strategy and directly confronted Apple's rumored entry into the market. "When Apple says they are going to come with an electric car in 2020, that's good news for us," he said in his speech, according to Adweek. Ghosn took the view that any company able to grow the acceptance of EVs would help every automaker in the segment. The Renault-Nissan Alliance has been at the forefront of developing the market and claimed nearly 60 percent of the global market share last year. He was also the latest auto industry heavyweight to voice his opinion on Apple entering the industry. However, in contrast to former General Motors boss Dan Akerson, the Nissan CEO was much more welcoming. Ghosn also used the speech as a chance to clarify Nissan's plans for autonomous vehicles and seemingly pushed the original goal back by about five years. "In 10 years, you'll have cars without the driver. It is here, and it's going to transform the products," he said, according to Adweek. Under Nissan's current timeline, traffic-jam assist and fully automated parking are due in 2016, followed by automatic lane changing in 2018 and the ability to drive through intersections without a driver's control comes in 2020. News Source: AdweekImage Credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP / Getty Images Green Nissan Renault Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles Electric

Williams developing hybrid system for next Nissan GT-R?

Back in June, Nissan announced a new partnership with Williams that would see the Formula One team's applied sciences division help develop a new line of Nismo performance models. It's not the only agreement Renault-Nissan has signed with an F1 team: Infiniti is the title sponsor for Red Bull and Renault powers four teams on the grid. It's also just the latest client Williams has signed a deal with to apply the lessons it has gleaned on the F1 circuit to other racing and sportscars. But now we've got some more info on how Williams and Nismo intend to collaborate on the next-generation GT-R.
According to Australia's Carsales, Williams Advanced Engineering is developing the hybrid powertrain that will boost the next iteration of the supercar-slayer known as Godzilla. Which may seem strange considering that the Renault-Nissan Alliance has plenty of experience with electric propulsion on its own, but then Williams has proven itself something of a leader in the field of performance hybrid powertrains: it supplies them to Porsche and Audi for their Le Mans racecars, and to Jaguar for the C-X75 concept.
Whether Williams and Nismo will settle on a flywheel-based energy recovery system or a more conventional battery-powered system remains to be seen, but brakeforce regeneration likely won't be the only element that Williams will develop for the next GT-R. Expect its expertise in aerodynamics and composites to come to bear as well, which can only mean good things for the replacement for a sportscar that's already one of the most capable on the road.

Tesla Model S drivers put way more miles on their cars than Nissan Leaf owners do (we think)

Just a few weeks ago, Nissan announced that its customers have driven over a billion electric kilometers in the four years that the world's best-selling EV has been on the road. That heady milestone means, Nissan says, that the Leaf has saved 180 million kilograms of CO2 emissions around the world. The billion kilometers have been split among the 147,000 Leaf vehicles that Nissan has sold. Well, not really, since the billion kilometer total only counts Leaf EVs registered with CarWings, which Nissan says is 54 percent of the total sales. That's 79,380 cars and results in an average – and it's only a rough average, but what're you gonna do? – of 12,597 miles per car. Let's keep that number in mind for a minute. Today, despite going on sale a year and a half after the Leaf (June 2012 versus late 2010), Tesla Motors Tweeted today that Model S drivers have hit the same numerical milestone. Tesla didn't say how many of its vehicles were involved in its count, but we think that Tesla has sold at least 50,000 Model S electric vehicles globally (about 2,650 in 2012, 22,450 in 2013, 21,821 for 2014 through the end of September), so we'll estimate a rough average for each Model S of 20,000 miles. So, in case anyone ever needs numeric proof that a Model S is more fun to drive than a Leaf – that's the only possible thing this could mean, right? *ahem, longer range* – now you've got the data. {C} This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Nissan says "thanks a billion" to LEAF owners Nissan LEAF drivers registered on CarWings telematics have collectively driven ONE BILLION KILOMETERS worldwide* Globally, Nissan LEAF drivers have saved more than 180 MILLION kilograms of CO2 emissions* Over 147,000 Nissan LEAF vehicles have been sold globally to date ROLLE, Switzerland – Nissan has revealed that owners of the LEAF, its 100% electric car, have collectively recorded an impressive one billion kilometers on the CarWings telematics system worldwide – saving over 180 million kilograms of CO2 emissions* in the process. This incredible achievement comes almost four years since the LEAF was launched in 2010 as one of the first mass-market, pure-electric vehicles. It is now the best-selling electric vehicle in history, with over 147,000 LEAF vehicles sold globally to date, 31,000 of which have been sold in Europe.