2012 Nissan Versa 1.8 S on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: BMW to test autonomous cars, Korea bans sales of BMW, Nissan, Porsche models

BMW will test autonomous cars on public roads by the second half of 2017. The German automaker, with partners Mobileye and Intel, will operate a fleet of 40 self-driving vehicles using a "scalable architecture" that will be made available to other automakers. The partners plan to offer products ranging from key components to "a complete end-to-end solution" for autonomous driving. Since parting ways with Tesla, Mobileye also recently announced it would provide its technology to Lucid Motors. For BMW, it all leads up to its fully autonomous iNext model slated for introduction in 2021. See the video above, and read more in the press release from Intel. South Korea has banned the sale of certain models from BMW, Nissan, and Porsche over emissions cheating. Following an investigation, regulators determined emissions testing documents to be falsified. The country's Ministry of Environment has fined the three automakers a total of $5.9 million, and revoked the certification of 4,523 vehicles across banned 10 models. Six of the models were still on sale, while the other four have been discontinued. Read more from Automotive News Europe. China's prices for the Cadillac CT6 Plug-in are significantly higher than those announced for the US. The plug-in hybrid version of the luxury sedan recently went on sale with the two variants priced at RMB 558,800 and RMB 658,800. At the time of this writing, that's $80,420 and $94,812. Cadillac announced it would bring the CT6 Plug-In Í– which is built in China – to the US in the spring of 2017, starting at $76,090 before federal and local tax incentives. Hybrid Cars points out that China's own generous incentives could help to make it more competitive. The offering of a charger with free installation as well as an eight-year warranty on the electric powertrain should help, too. Read more at Hybrid Cars. A Connecticut court has ruled in favor of Tesla's gallery showroom in Greenwich. Last May, the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association brought the suit to block the showroom on Greenwich Avenue, which has now been dismissed by the Connecticut Superior Court. Tesla cannot offer test drives, sell cars, or operate a Supercharger at the location, but it can sell other branded items and educate the public about its vehicles. It's possible that the issue of Tesla's direct sales model could come up again this year in Connecticut state legislature. Read more at Teslarati .

Massive Airbag Recall Affects Seven Automakers

The recall of faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata has exploded today to grow to seven automakers. In most cases, only models in certain high-humidity regions were affected because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found in its investigation that moisture played a role in determining whether there would be a problem. However, some companies opted for national campaigns. The exact number of affected models for these campaigns isn't yet known at this time. BMW is recalling an undisclosed number of 325i, 325Xi, 330i and 330Xi models from the 2001 through 2005 model years and the 2001-2006 model year versions of the 325Ci and 330Ci for the driver side and passenger side inflators. Only vehicles currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands are covered under this recall. Neither Chrysler's filing with NHTSA nor its press release list the specific models affected, but a company spokesperson told Autoblog that at this time it only covers the driver and passenger side inflators for the 2006 Dodge Charger in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands In most cases, only models in certain high-humidity regions were affected because the NHTSA found that moisture played a roll in determining if there would be a problem. Ford is recalling an estimated 58,669 cars that include the 2005-2006 model years of the Ford GT for the driver and passenger inflators, the 2007-2007 model years of the Mustang for the driver side and 2004 Ranger for the passenger side. It covers vehicles originally sold or currently registered in, wait for it... Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands. Honda is issuing three separate recalls regarding the problem. First, the company is recalling the 2002-2003 model years Civic, CR-V and Odyssey and the 2003 model year of the Accord, Element, Pilot and Acura MDX to replace the passenger's side inflator. This covers all models nationwide. Second, Honda is repairing the passenger's side airbag inflator in the 2003-2005 Accord, Civic, CR-V, Element, Pilot, the 2003-2004 model year versions of the Odyssey, the 2003-2005 model year Acura MDX and 2005 Acura RL. However, only for vehicles located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Owners will be notified in July. Finally, Honda is separately replacing some models' driver's side inflators.

Japan prosecutors seek 2 years in prison for ex-Nissan exec Greg Kelly

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors demanded two years in prison for former Nissan executive Greg Kelly and accused him of joining a “conspiracy” to pay his former boss Carlos Ghosn illicitly in closing arguments Wednesday in a yearlong trial. “That unpaid compensation existed is clear,” prosecutor Yukio Kawasaki told the Tokyo District Court, reading briskly from a thick document. Kelly, a 30-year veteran at the Japanese automaker, was living in the U.S. when he was arrested in November 2018 upon returning to Japan to attend a meeting. The first American to be appointed to NissanÂ’s board, Kelly says he is innocent. He sat calmly in the courtroom, wearing his usual red tie and dark suit, alongside defense lawyers. Everyone in the courthouse was wearing a mask because of the pandemic. Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview last month he did not know all the details of GhosnÂ’s pay. He was determined to retain Ghosn, Nissan's former chairman, because of his extraordinary management skills and wanted to pay him in a legal way, he said. Ghosn was arrested at the same time as Kelly and also maintains he is innocent. He skipped bail in late 2019 and fled to Lebanon, the country of his ancestry. It has no extradition treaty with Japan. The charges center around a pay cut of about 1 billion yen ($10 million) a year that Ghosn voluntarily started taking from 2010, halving his pay after disclosure of high executive pay became mandatory in Japan. Nissan Motor officials considered various ways to make up for the money Ghosn gave up, such as paying him consulting fees after retirement. They also mulled other methods such as payments through subsidiaries and stock options. Nothing had been paid at the time of the arrests. The contention is over whether that money should have been reported as compensation as a de facto promised sum under a binding contract, or didnÂ’t need to be disclosed until it was finalized. Ghosn has said a group at Nissan engineered his arrest because they feared that French automaker Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, would gain more control over the company. Other Nissan officials made similar comments during KellyÂ’s trial. Renault sent Ghosn to Nissan in 1999 to lead its rescue from the brink of bankruptcy. He successfully steered the maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models for nearly two decades.