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Mitsubishi and Nissan teaming up on electric kei car

Nissan and Mitsubishi have announced plans to build an electric kei car together. The yet-unnamed car would mark a major step towards electrification of Japan's popular supercompact segment. The car will be powered by a 20 kWh battery and will be engineered to cover daily driving duties in a Japanese driving cycle. The car can also double as a mobile power source or power a home in emergency situations. Nissan says the car will measure 134 inches long, 58 inches wide, and 65 inches tall, in order to comply with laws limiting kei car size. The companies state that the car will be developed by NMKV Co., Ltd., a joint-venture that stands for Nissan Mitsubishi Kei Vehicle. Each carmaker owns a 50 percent stake, and already jointly builds models such as the feline favorite Nissan Dayz, which Mitsubishi sells as the eK. In reality, that likely means Mitsubishi will be developing the car and Nissan will simply slap a badge on it. Nissan has not traditionally built kei cars, choosing instead to rebadge those made by Suzuki or Mitsubishi. In fact, Mitsubishi built the first electric kei car, the i-Miev, way back in 2009, and it was actually sold in the U.S. until 2017. The jellybean-shaped EV was a pioneer in the field, but its 62-mile range from a 16 kWh lithium-ion battery showed the limitations of the technology at the time. Mitsubishi moved about 32,000 of them before they pulled the plug, with a pre-tax-credit price ranging from $23,000 to $31,000. The new Nissan-Mitsubishi kei car will land at around 2 million yen, or $18,200. The price, while slightly more expensive than a gasoline counterpart, bucks predictions from analysts that said prices would skyrocket by 66 to 120 percent if kei cars were forced to electrify. A petrol-powered Nissan Dayz starts at around $15,200. Size-wise, the two share a similar footprint as they are governed by kei car size limits. The special class of cars get unique license plates and other registration cost benefits due to their compact dimensions. A BMW i3 would exceed those boundaries due to its 158-inch length and 70-inch width. However, the larger EV comes equipped with a substantially bigger 42.2 kWh battery good for 152 miles of range. Though no photos have been released, we predict it will look like the iMk concept (pictured above). The car will go on sale in spring 2022. Related Video This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Don't expect to hear about second-gen Nissan Leaf anytime soon

With Chevy revealing the first details of the next-gen Volt at the Detroit Auto Show last month and Tesla priming the pump for the lower-cost Model 3, we're obviously curious to hear about the next-gen Nissan Leaf. It looks like we're going to have to wait. "Of course things are in the works," Nissan's Brian Brockman told AutoblogGreen at the Chicago Auto Show last week, reminding us that the automaker has long been proud of its EV leadership. What that means in practice is that people shouldn't expect to hear anything specific about the new Leaf until we get closer to the summer, well after the New York Auto Show in April. After all, no other companies have to worry about cannibalizing existing pure EV sales, he said. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid so the now-confirmed Bolt EV that may get here in 2017 is likely to appeal to a slightly different crowd and the audience for a $30,000 Tesla Model 3 is not really the same as the one interested in today's $100,000 Model S. There are any number of other plug-in vehicles coming in the next few years, but the Leaf reigns supreme as the best-selling pure EV in the US, so forgive us if we're curious to know what's coming next, beyond that vague descriptions of it as more mainstream looking with a longer range. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf View 13 Photos Green Nissan Electric brian brockman

Nissan bringing Qashqai, Rogue hybrid to US

Nissan will be expanding its crossover range here in the United States, introducing the popular European-market Qashqai, alongside a hybridized version of the Rogue. Nissan's Kyushu, Japan factory, meanwhile, will churn out 100,000 gas-powered Rogues to capitalize on hot demand here in the United States. The Kyushu move, at least, seems like a smart one, considering just how hot the compact Rogue is. "We haven't hit the ceiling [on Rogue] yet. We have more opportunity there if we can get our dealers more," Fred Diaz, Nissan's senior VP of sales and marketing, told Automotive News. Amping up production in Kyushu will finally mean the end of the first-generation Rogue, though, now known as the Rogue Select. Somehow, we doubt many tears will be shed. AN cites "two sources familiar with Nissan's future product" in its report on the Qashqai and Rogue Hybrid, although both moves are a bit strange at first glance. Both vehicles play in the same part of the market, and are both based on the Renault-Nissan Common Module Family platform. As for the Rogue Hybrid, well, we know what happened the last time Nissan tried to add an electric motor and battery pack to one of its crossovers. Plus, we've heard this rumor before. Nissan, though, seems to think both moves make a lot of sense. While the Qashqai and Rogue are closely related, the Euro-market model is smaller – 10 inches shorter and two inches narrower – making it less versatile, and it wears more handsome sheetmetal. Expect Nissan to field it as such, aiming at buyers that want a CUV for the lifestyle, rather than the versatility, Automotive News reports. There's a lot less information on the Rogue Hybrid, aside from AN reporting that it will hit the market next year. As for potential powertrains, mum's the word. The gas-powered Rogue uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder, which is the same size as the gas-engine found in the dead-but-still-warm Pathfinder Hybrid. While we doubt it's as simple as a drag and drop, it seems like Nissan's most recent hybrid powertrain is the obvious choice for the upcoming Rogue. What do you think? Will the Qashqai be as big of a hit in the US as it is in Europe and Australia? Is a Rogue Hybrid such a smart move considering the tremendous failure of the Pathfinder Hybrid? Speak up in Comments. Related Video: