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Nissan CEO plans to deliver 'raw details of the misconduct' to Renault

TOKYO/PARIS — Nissan Motor's CEO plans to meet one-on-one with the deputy CEO of automaking partner Renault in Amsterdam this week, sources told Reuters, amid tensions over the future of the alliance after Chairman Carlos Ghosn's arrest last month. The meeting would be the first face-to-face interaction between Nissan's Hiroto Saikawa and Renault's Thierry Bollore since Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 in Tokyo. It would take place alongside regular top-level, monthly talks between the partners and Mitsubishi Motor Corp that will be held over two days from Tuesday, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. Saikawa, who took over from Ghosn as CEO last year, is planning to discuss at the meeting with Bollore possible changes to the partnership's management and operations with an eye to continuing the alliance, another source who is close to Nissan's management said. The talks in Amsterdam could provide Saikawa with an opportunity to try and convince Renault executives of the gravity of Ghosn's alleged misconduct discovered during an in-house investigation by the Japanese automaker. They are being held a day after Saikawa rebuffed a demand from Renault for an extraordinary shareholder meeting that would have offered the French car maker a chance to weigh in on Ghosn's replacement as chairman and on other Nissan board appointments. Mitsubishi Chairman Osamu Masuko said late on Monday he will attend the Amsterdam meetings via video conference. A Nissan spokesman said Saikawa would attend meetings with alliance partners in Amsterdam from Tuesday, but declined to comment on the possibility of the one-on-one meeting with Bollore. Ghosn was charged last week alongside alleged accomplice Greg Kelly and Nissan itself over the company's failure to declare $43 million in deferred income that Ghosn had arranged to be paid while chairman and CEO. Both men remain in custody. The scandal has shaken the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, with Saikawa calling for changes to weaken Renault's control as he moved to oust Ghosn in the week of his arrest. Renault directors were briefed last week on the Nissan investigation that led to Ghosn's arrest but reiterated their earlier decision to keep him in office as chairman and CEO. But the Renault board has yet to be given direct access to Nissan's findings, which are being closely held by Renault lawyers answering to Ghosn's long-standing chief of staff and head of legal affairs at Renault, Mouna Sepehri.

Thanks to a year of free charges, Nissan Leaf sees sales increase in Texas

Nissan is pretty certain that free charging offers in the two largest metropolitan areas in Texas are substantially boosting sales of the Leaf electric vehicle. Heck, one Houston car dealer says Leaf sales have tripled because of the plan, which is run by NRG through its batch of eVgo Freedom Stations. Each of these stations has a fast-charging outlet and a standard Level 2 cord where EV drivers can plug-in without breaking out the wallet. Here's how the plan works: NRG is offering a year of free charging for those who buy or lease a Leaf in either the Houston or Dallas-Fort Worth areas. NRG has 17 stations in Houston and another 23 in DFW. Nissan pays NRG a fee for employing the program, and it's apparently paying off, Nissan's Brendan Jones told Plug In Cars. The stations are located at retailers such as Walgreens and at gas-station chains. The "No Charge to Charge" program started October 1 and runs through the end of this month. The promotion may be driving sales, but let's remember that Nissan was touting a rise in Leaf sales numbers before the free charging deal went into effect. Of course, the fun does eventually end, and folks have to start paying for the juice after that first year. Two options NRG offers are a 12-month unlimited charging plan for $39.95 a month or a year of unlimited one-hour sessions at a Level 2 a cool $59.95. Californians, there's sadly no word on Nissan or NRG bringing a similar program to the Golden State. Because we know you were wondering that.

NHTSA opens investigation into Nissan's handling of airbag recall

In March of 2014, Nissan recalled eight models among its Nissan and Infiniti brands, totaling more than one million vehicles, over faulty occupant classification system software controlling the passenger airbag. The company discovered a variety of factors that would interfere with the system's ability to detect an adult passenger in the shotgun seat, resulting in an illuminated warning on on the dashboard and the passenger airbag not deploying in an accident. Yet 124 complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since the recall allege that the dealer-installed fix hasn't actually fixed the problem; some consumers say the problem persists after multiple trips to the dealer. The Detroit News reports that NHTSA is opening an investigation into the matter to determine whether a new recall is needed. The occupant sensor has been a bugbear for Nissan over the past couple of years; a much smaller recall for the issue in 2013 covered five of the eight vehicles that were recalled in 2014, and that earlier recall also continued to generate complaints after the issue had supposedly been fixed. At the same time, the company learned that in two instances there was another twist, where the dashboard warning wasn't illuminated but the passenger airbag still didn't go off in an accident. Nissan isn't alone, though, with airbag recalls on a steep upswing across the industry even before the Takata debacle.