2021 Nissan Rogue Sl on 2040-cars

Auto blog

World's cheapest Nissan Leaf costs just $9,460

If you thought electric vehicles were expensive, head on over to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. There, you can buy a Nissan Leaf for the amazingly low price of just 7,450 euros ($9,460 US). Or, if a practical delivery van is more your style, check out the Nissan e-NV200 Visia Flex, which is absurdly priced at 4,950 euros ($6,400). Now, you might be thinking, those prices don't seem right, and this isn't a case of Nissan slashing the price like someone in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Instead, these deals are already and unsurprisingly being called the "world's best EV incentives." The great deals - available to businesses only – are due to generous national and local government incentives that are designed to take dirty vehicles off the road. Things like scrappage incentives (worth 2,500 euros, or $3,240) and free parking for EVs as well as home charger incentives stack up until they bring the price of a new EV down to the levels listed above. Jordi Vila, the managing director for Nissan Netherlands, told Automotive World that, "By scrapping older vehicles and incentivising buyers to replace them with zero-emission electric vehicles, Rotterdam is taking a huge step in improving air quality." As great as these deals are, it turns out that most car buyers are unaware of EV incentives. This is too bad, since there is a short but interesting history of tremendous deals on plug-in vehicles, like the $10,000 discount on the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (or the $69/month lease on that thing). For pure "dollars off" value, though, nothing beats the $30,000 in total incentives that maybe be available in some Japanese prefectures for hydrogen vehicles, which might expand all the way to free H2 cars.

Driving an EV cross-country, planting trees in all 48 states

National Drive Electric Week kicks off on September 12, but Brian Kent is starting his celebration early in an incredibly green way. On August 24, he sets off in his Nissan Leaf from Albion, NY, on an odyssey to visit the 48 contiguous US states and plant a tree in each one. Along the way, he's stopping off for the EV festival's party in Jeffersontown, KY. Kent calls the 26,000-mile drive the Negative Carbon US Road Trip because in 40 years those 48 trees should trap about 10 times more CO2 than his Leaf produces on the journey. He's sponsored by Kampgrounds of America, and this modern Johnny Appleseed is sowing the plants at some of its 485 sites around North America. National Drive Electric Week currently has 146 events scheduled for this year, including several in Canada and one in Hong Kong. The annual celebration aims to get people interested in plug-in vehicles. One of the gatherings last year even had the world's largest ever parade of EVs, but the record was unofficially broken in Berlin this spring. Will we get a new record next month? Just in Time for National Drive Electric Week: A Cross-Country Trip to Raise Awareness of Plug-In Vehicles Brian Kent will log 26,000 miles in his electric car, planting one tree in 48 states along the way San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 18, 2015—Brian Kent, set to embark upon a cross-country trek in his electric car on Aug. 24, will participate in National Drive Electric Week by routing his 48-state, gasoline-free tour through the EV celebration's event in Jeffersontown, KY. Kent plans to launch his 26,000-mile journey from his home in Albion, NY, charging his Nissan LEAF in city centers and campgrounds alike and planting a tree in each state for his first annual Negative Carbon U.S. Road Trip. He will blog along the way. Volunteers and other plug-in vehicle supporters in more than 130 cities from Hilo, HI to South Portland, ME will stage ride-and-drives and related activities during National Drive Electric Week, Sept. 12-20, for the same reason that Kent is hitting the road: to raise awareness of plug-ins. "My goals are consistent with those of National Drive Electric Week," said the freelance writer. "Misperceptions are rife.

2021 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 Road Test | Z engine preview

There isn’t much reason to take another look at the 2021 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 on the surface. ItÂ’s largely the same sedan as it was when we drove it in 2016: powerful and stylish, but lacking in tech and polish. However, whatÂ’s under the hood is of far more interest to us today than it was just a year ago. ThatÂ’s because the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 powering this Infiniti is migrating over to the next Nissan Z car. Nissan announced that the production Z would get a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 not long after it revealed the Z Proto. There are no other twin-turbo V6s in NissanÂ’s arsenal but this one, meaning that the VR30DDTT engine in this Infiniti is destined for the Z — plus, there's photo confirmation. The big question remaining is: How new or different will it be? Its most potent state of tune is rated at 400 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. ThatÂ’s a high number versus most other boosted six-cylinders, and perhaps most importantly, itÂ’s more potent than the 382-horsepower 2021 Toyota GR Supra 3.0. As weÂ’ll soon explain, though, numbers only tell part of the story. Transplanting the InfinitiÂ’s V6 into the next Z surely wonÂ’t be without challenges, either. Nissan is promising a six-speed manual in the Z. Meanwhile, this engine is exclusively paired with a traditional seven-speed automatic transmission in the Q50 and Q60. Nissan hitched this engine up with a manual in a 370Z SEMA show car years ago, but now it must devise a production car solution. ThereÂ’s also the question of whether Nissan will use the same seven-speed as the automatic option in the Z, or come up with something a bit more aggressive. The cost-efficient (and likely) solution would be reusing the seven-speed, not unlike the Supra's eight-speed traditional automatic.  Having all of this in mind, we set out to see how this engine sits today as a preview to the Z.  Going from the big, naturally aspirated VQ series V6 to a smaller twin-turbo V6 will bring about the obvious changes. The rabid and uncouth personality of the outgoing VQ is nowhere to be found in the sweet and smooth new engine. ItÂ’s not quite the silky, effortless BMW inline-six found in the Supra, but it brings an air of refinement and maturity that's simply not there in the current Z. And then thereÂ’s the torque. All 350 pounds of twist are available at 1,600 rpm in the Q50 Red Sport 400, which means the shove in the back would theoretically start just off idle.