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Strains between France and Italy risk Renault-FCA merger

PARIS/ROME — Fiat Chrysler's proposed $35 billion merger with Renault has cheered investors, won conditional support from Paris and Rome and even earned cautious backing from trade unions. Beneath this veneer, however, the bold attempt to create the world's third-largest carmaker risks becoming rapidly embroiled in the fraught relationship between France's europhile President Emmanuel Macron and Italy's euroskeptic leaders. For while Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini hailed the proposal as a "brilliant operation," Italy's creaking, state-subsidized Fiat factories are likely to bear the brunt of any production-related cost savings. FCA and Renault said this week that more than 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of annual savings would come mainly from combining platforms, consolidating powertrain and electrification investments and the benefits of increased scale. Salvini and France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who called the deal a "good opportunity" to build a European industrial champion able to compete with China and the United States, have both said they want guarantees on local jobs. "It's not every day that I agree with Salvini," said Le Maire, whose government appears to hold the trump cards. When it comes to where any job cuts fall, France will be helped by its existing 15 percent holding in Renault, whose superior efficiency at its five French plants makes it better placed to handle a supply glut, the demise of the petrol engine and the investments needed for electric and autonomous vehicles. "It will take many, many years to find real savings, and ugly political and operational realities can often swamp the potential of such new entities," Bernstein analyst Max Warburton said of the FCA-Renault plan to rival Japan's Toyota and Germany's Volkswagen. Advantage France? As well as Italy's government having to cope with the aftermath of European elections, which coincided with news of the FCA-Renault plans, political leaders in Rome were only informed shortly before the deal was made public, an FCA source said. This contrasted with the way the French government was treated, with Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann, a fluent French speaker, letting it know of his merger proposal to Renault weeks ago, a French government official said.

Nissan's Le Mans prototype V6 to power next GT-R

You can debate all you want about whether racing has any relevance to road cars. And while you're doing that, Nissan will be getting the most out of its GT-R LM Nismo. In fact, the latest reports indicate that the Japanese automaker will use the engine (or some version thereof) in the next-generation GT-R. The Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, for those who may have missed it, is the company's radical attempt to take on the Audis, Porsches and Toyotas of the top-tier LMP1 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship. And to do so at its flagship event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only unlike its rivals, it's not a mid-engined, all-wheel-drive design; both the engine and the driven wheels are at the front end. That engine, however, isn't actually all that radical. It's a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 producing 550 horsepower. Potent, but nothing earth-shattering. In fact it's not far off from the 545-hp 3.8-liter unit in the current production GT-R. And according to Top Gear, in speaking with the racing program's director Ben Bowlby, it will be essentially the same engine that will power the next road-going GT-R. Now if you're thinking that something's missing here, you're right: the GT-R LM Nismo packs a lot more than 550 horses. It actually has over 1,250 on tap. The remaining 700 hp are kicked in by the electric component of the racing prototype's hybrid powertrain. The next GT-R is widely expected to incorporate hybrid technology as well, but it won't be good for 700 hp all on its own. And it will almost certainly be driving all four wheels like the current version. Related Video:

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.