2014 Nissan Rogue Select S on 2040-cars

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Auto sales in March and first quarter down nearly across the board

Nearly every major automaker reported weak U.S. sales for March and the first quarter of 2019, citing a rough start to the year, but said a robust economy and strong labor market should encourage consumers to buy more vehicles as 2019 rolls on. GM, which no longer releases monthly sales figures, saw first-quarter sales fall 7 percent, with declines across all brands. Sales of Silverado pickup trucks fell nearly 16 percent and the high-margin Chevy Suburban large SUV dropped 25 percent. Ford also no longer releases monthly sales numbers, but is due to release its first-quarter sales figures on Thursday. According to industry data, Ford's sales fell 2 percent in the quarter and 5 percent in March. Ford representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. FCA reported a 7 percent fall in U.S. sales in March and a 3 percent drop for the first quarter. All of FCA's brands dropped in March, except for Ram, which saw a 15 percent increase in pickup truck sales. "The industry had a tough first quarter, but with spring finally starting to show its face and continued strong economic indicators ... we are confident that new vehicle sales demand will strengthen going forward," FCA's U.S. head of sales, Reid Bigland, said in a statement. Toyota reported a 3.5 percent fall in U.S. sales in March and 5 percent for the first quarter, hurt by declining demand for its Corolla sedans and Camry vehicles. "While some of our competitors are abandoning sedans, we remain optimistic about the future of the segment," Toyota said in a statement. Nissan posted a 5.3 percent drop in sales in March, and its first-quarter sales were down 11.6 percent. Honda and Hyundai bucked the trend. Honda's U.S. sales rose 4.3 percent in March and 2 percent in the quarter, while Hyundai's were up 1.7 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Passenger-car sales suffered throughout the January-March quarter compared with the same period in 2018 as Americans continued to abandon them in favor of larger, more comfortable pickup trucks and SUVs, which are far more profitable for automakers. The battle for market share in the particularly lucrative large-pickup truck market intensified in the quarter, as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Ram brand outsold the U.S.' No. 1 automaker General Motors' Chevrolet-brand trucks. The two automakers have both launched redesigned pickup trucks.

Nissan Leaf has 2nd-best sales month ever, Chevy Volt does a 2013 repeat [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The official press release says that "Volt [sales were] up 7 percent," but Randy Fox let AutoblogGreen know that this is simply due to a change in the fleet/retail mix between March 2013 and 2014. The actual number sold was exactly the same in the two months. A month ago, Nissan's director of EV sales and marketing, Toby Perry, said he expected to see the Leaf's sales momentum continue into March. It wasn't a big leap, since January and February were slow sales months in 2013 (around 640 each) before a big climb to 2,200 in March. In 2014, the first two months of the year were better (around 1,300 each) but Nissan can still be happy that the Leaf just had the best March ever and its second-highest sales month ever, with 2,507 sold. That's a 12.1 percent increase from 2013 and Perry said in a statement to AutoblogGreen that one reason is all of the buyers who are becoming evangelists for the vehicle. "We've also seen an increase in showroom traffic as we enhanced our marketing presence in March," he said. Nissan pointed to cities like Washington, DC, Raleigh-Durham, NC and urban areas in Texas as strong Leaf markets last month. On the Chevy Volt front, January and February were also slow months in 2014, down roughly half from the 2,000-ish the plug-in hybrid was selling at the end of 2013. For 2014, sales were up slightly from the first two months of the year and Chevy spokesman Randy Fox told AutoblogGreen that the March number was "pretty flat, year-over-year." Even with that warning, we were surprised to see the total come in at 1,478. Why's that? Because the total for March 2013 was ... 1,478. So, yeah, that's pretty steady even if there were 26 selling days in March period this year compared to 27 last year. As always, our more complete report of last month's green car sales will be coming soon. News Source: General Motors, Nissan Green Chevrolet GM Nissan Electric Hybrid PHEV ev sales

Nissan and NASA team up on autonomous zero-emissions test fleet

Nissan and NASA have announced a collaboration on autonomous vehicles that, if we're honest, makes more sense to us than Infiniti partnering with Red Bull. The two are commencing a five-year R&D program to explore autonomous drive systems, human-machine interfaces, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification. What's more: the test fleet will be zero emissions and rolling around NASA's Ames Research Center by the end of this year. We will assume that means autonomous Leafs, but Nissan could be working on a new vehicle for the purpose. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said the company will begin offering autonomous features "beginning in 2016," and wants to have commercially available self-piloting vehicles that can "navigate in nearly all situations," including urban environments, by 2020. Who better to assist than the people who put a self-driving rover on a planet that never gets closer than 34 million miles away? What does NASA get out of it? Access to Nissan's materials and component developments, prototyping systems, and robotic software test beds. Sounds like everybody wins. The press release below has more information. Nissan and NASA partner to jointly develop and deploy autonomous drive vehicles by end of year SUNNYVALE, Calif. Jan. 8, 2015 - Nissan Motor Co., through its North American-based organization, and NASA today announced the formation of a five-year research and development partnership to advance autonomous vehicle systems and prepare for commercial application of the technology. Researchers from Nissan's U.S. Silicon Valley Research Center and NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., will focus on autonomous drive systems, human-machine interface solutions, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification, all involving sophisticated hardware and software used in road and space applications. Researchers from the two organizations will test a fleet of zero-emission autonomous vehicles at Ames to demonstrate proof-of-concept remote operation of autonomous vehicles for the transport of materials, goods, payloads and people. For NASA, these tests parallel the way it operates planetary rovers from a mission control center. The first vehicle of that fleet should be testing at the facility by the end of 2015. "The work of NASA and Nissan – with one directed to space and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges," said Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co.