2010 Nissan Pathfinder S Fe+ 7-passenger Side Steps 55k Texas Direct Auto on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt have best sales month of 2015

Things are trending upwards for the two best-selling plug-in vehicles in the US. Both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf had their best sales month of 2015 in May, with the Volt selling 1,618 units and the Leaf moving 2,104. The upward swings come at an interesting time, with lots of excess first-gen Volts waiting for buyers and some buyers already ordering their second-gen Volts. So far in 2015, the Leaf has outsold the Volt 7,742 to 4,397. While 7,700 Leafs is respectable, it's nowhere near the numbers that Nissan will have to hit to reach the 50,000 annual sales that CEO Carlos Ghosn says is possible in the US. Still, the Leaf had its best sales month since December 2014 (when it sold 3,102 units) in May, but last month was still down 32.5 percent compared to May 2014. Despite the smaller overall number, May represents a big positive for Chevy, which has seen sluggish sales for the Volt for a long while now. The 1,618 Volts sold last month are only 3.9 percent lower than the 1,684 sold in May 2014 and May 2015 was the best month for Volt sales since August 2014. Perhaps salesmen are ready to make deals, what with thousands sitting around on dealer lots right now. The next-gen Volt is due this fall, and the order books (in California, at least) opened up this week. Like every month, our full wrap-up of green car sales in the US is coming soon (the VW e-Golf, for example, hit a best-ever high of 410 sales). Until then, feel free to discuss the Volt and Leaf sales figures in the Comments. Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid ev sales hybrid sales

Nissan already planning for EV sales once incentives run out

The way Nissan looks at it, no good deed goes unpunished. The Japanese automaker will likely be the first to see federal incentives for its electric vehicles disappear. And the company may already be trying to work out some wiggle room with the powers that be. The issue is that the Nissan Leaf is the most popular electric-vehicle in the US, moving more than 77,000 vehicles since the model's late-2010 debut. Sales have likely been helped by the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs (along with additional state incentives), but that perk starts to disappear for Nissan once the automaker has sold a cumulative 200,000 EVs. Even though that's likely a few years off, Nissan North America executive Pierre Loing told Wards Auto that the company is talking with the feds to see if there is "room for negotiations." In the meantime, Nissan is trying to further cut battery-production costs in order to both reduce the price on the Leaf and lengthen its single-charge range. Nissan notably shaved $6,400 off of the Leaf's sticker price in early 2013, and that seems to have worked wonders. Leaf sales more than doubled that year to 22,610 units and jumped another 34 percent last year to 30,200 units. Featured Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf View 13 Photos News Source: Wards Auto Government/Legal Green Nissan Electric legislation

2015 Nissan Murano First Drive

The Murano has an interesting position within the Nissan stable. On one hand, its size puts it between the Rogue and Pathfinder, both of which are geared more toward families, big and small. And while the Murano could easily be used for hauling your brood, that's not exactly its forte. After all, unlike it's siblings, it offers no third row accommodations. There's no rear-seat entertainment system available. There are no clever storage systems. That's because, in Nissan's eyes, the Murano is the flagship of its crossover range, and it's geared more toward older couples – empty-nesters, or folks who just never got around to having kids. This allows the Murano to be more premium in terms its styling and its available content. The Murano is less about taking the kids to soccer practice and more about taking four adults out to a wine tasting. Premium styling is indeed the big story here – this Murano looks fantastic, and is a rather dramatic departure from the oft-disliked second-generation model it replaces. Beyond that, the new Murano is more in line with the radical-looking, first-gen CUV that debuted in the early 2000s. But Nissan says the whole Murano package was developed with this flagship theme in mind – the company's executives call this the Maxima of its crossovers. To find out if that all holds true for the 2015 Murano, I headed up to California wine country – the vehicle's natural habitat, I've been led to understand – to see what's what. When it came time to pen the 2015 model, Nissan strived to "push the reset button." I don't think anyone loves the Nissan Murano as much as the automaker's senior creative manager in North America, Ken Lee. While presenting the third-generation crossover to members of the media during the car's launch in Napa, CA, Lee said it was the original Murano that made him want to work for Nissan in the first place. So when it came time to pen the 2015 model, Lee strived to "push the reset button," and create a product with an equally strong styling statement. The goal here was to design a Murano that would resonate as a premium vehicle not only as part of the Nissan lineup, but within the midsize crossover segment as a whole. I use the word "resonate" for a reason. Think back to the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, when Nissan debuted its Resonance concept – an aggressive, modern showcar that clearly showed a new direction for not just the Murano itself, but for all of the Japanese automaker's future designs.