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Bug-eyed next-gen Nissan Titan spied testing

It's no secret that the fullsize pickup truck market is dominated by offerings from Detroit's Big Three automakers, the Nissan Titan and Toyota Tundra not able to outdo the Ford F-150, Ram 1500 or Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra twins. A great deal of that has to do with the fact that, while the American trucks have all undergone evolutionary updates that include a range of body styles, fuel-efficient engines and excellent technology, the Japanese offerings are, well, really old. Toyota is offering an updated Tundra for the 2014 model year, and while we haven't driven it yet, we're already betting that it's still behind the pack in terms of competitiveness - the 2013 model placed fifth out of sixth in a recent PickupTrucks.com comparison test.
At the bottom of the pack lies the Nissan Titan, a truck that hasn't received any sort of substantial update since its introduction nearly ten years ago. But that's going to change - a new truck is slated to debut for the 2015 model year, and these spy shots of a Titan mule clearly show that things are moving forward.
While this tester relies heavily on the current truck's bodywork for testing purposes, the new Titan will have a revised design, some of which is evidenced by the bug-eyed front fascia of this mule. No, the production model isn't going to look all weird (we hope), but the higher, more outboard headlight placement suggests that the new truck will be a bit wider than the current model.

Infiniti will move back to Japan from Hong Kong in 2020

BEIJING – Nissan's premium brand Infiniti is relocating its headquarters back to Japan from Hong Kong, its home since 2012, to create "more operational efficiencies" with its parent company, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The move planned for mid-2020, and expected to be publicly announced later on Wednesday, will help the Japanese automaker cut costs amid a slump in its global earnings in the year ended March 31. "The relocation will further integrate (Infiniti) with global design, research and development and manufacturing functions based in Japan," Nissan said in the statement, adding that Infiniti would continue to "operate independently". The move also was "crucial" for Nissan to follow through on its strategy to electrify the Infiniti lineup, the document said, with plans for every premium model launched from 2021 to be either all-electric or "e-Power" hybrid. A Nissan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there was a "fair amount of platform and other base technology sharing" between Infiniti and the main volume brand Nissan, "there could be more". Nissan's global operating profit plunged 45% in the last fiscal year and would likely drop another 28% to "rock bottom" in the current one, according to company filings earlier this month. Infiniti's move back to Japan will reverse a decision made under ousted leader Carlos Ghosn to dilute the premium brand's Japanese origins in order to foster a more global image. Its Hong Kong headquarters has about 180 employees who were told about the move back to Yokohama earlier on Wednesday, according to the Nissan official. The Hong Kong headquarters and the global image it was intended to promote were seen as critical for Infiniti to make inroads in China, where being Japanese can sometimes be a handicap because of historical animosities. In 2012, Infiniti and other Japanese brands took a battering in the wake of diplomatic spats over disputed islets known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. Since then, Japan's bilateral relationship with China has steadily improved and Japanese automakers including Nissan and Toyota are seeing their businesses expand, even as China's overall auto market has slumped over the past year. (Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Renault-Nissan debuts new Common Module Family for future vehicles

Platform sharing is nothing new for the 14-year-old Renault-Nissan Alliance, but this partnership is set to introduce new modular platform components that will eventually underpin 11 Renault models and three Nissan vehicles by 2020. Rather than being a typical platform, the Common Module Family (CMF) actually represents five segments of a platform that can be used in various applications, and one of the first vehicles to use this architecture will be the 2014 Nissan Rogue (spy shots of which are shown below) when it arrives "in late 2013."
As pictured in the image above (click to expand), CMF is composed of four chassis component, principally the front underbody, rear underbody, engine bay and cockpit as well as a common electrical system. Besides the next-gen Rogue, future Nissan models to share CMF will include the Qashqai and X-Trail, while Renault models will start using the platform next year on vehicles including the Scénic and Laguna. The CMF architecture is expected to help the Alliance reduce the parts cost of a vehicle by up to 30 percent and reduce the entry cost by up to 40 percent. The official press release with more details about CMF, and what it means for Renault-Nissan, is posted below.