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Nissan e-NV200 EV charges into Tokyo

Nissan has already shown its e-NV200 in Detroit and Frankfurt in conceptual form, now its home market is getting an up-close look at the production all-electric compact van at the Tokyo Motor Show. While it doesn't sound like the e-NV200 will be making its way to the US anytime soon, it will go on sale on sale in Europe in the middle of next year and in Japan by early 2015.
The electric NV200 will be built in Barcelona, Spain, and while that EV-minded city has committed to using the van for public transportation, Nissan's hometown of Yokohama, Japan will also put the zero-emission vehicle to work in its public services fleet. Nissan has yet to reveal the production specs for the e-NV200 - including range - we do know that it will share much of its drivetrain with smaller Nissan Leaf. Check out the press release posted below for more information about the e-NV200 and Nissan's EV efforts in Yokohama.

Nissan puts Le Mans prototype program under review

Nissan had a challenging time developing its GT-R LM Nismo, then it faced enormous challenges at Le Mans, the race it designed the car for, and now the race outfit is dealing with challenges in the boardroom. While the outfit gets ready for a test at the Circuit of the Americas, Sportscar365 reports that Nissan executives in Japan are deciding how to proceed with their LMP1 program. The meetings were presaged last month by CEO Carlos Ghosn, who said at last month's Formula E race in London that "we must assess the strategy. We wanted to be different and competitive, we have only been different." Both Ghosn's wording and that of the Sportscar365 piece make it seem that company bosses are wrangling over continuing with "the current specification" of the GT-R LM Nismo, not the entire two-year race program. If that's the case and the decision goes against, we could see a more traditional Nissan racer in La Sarthe next year. While it's easy for us to say this, we think that would be a shame. Le Mans is hard enough to win with a massive budget and a traditional race car - just ask Peugeot and Toyota, and remember that Porsche didn't go home covered in laurels its first year back, either. Given just how different Nissan's car is, a year in the deep weeds at the world's biggest and least forgiving endurance race against veteran competition isn't an outrageous outcome. And remember, persistent issues prevented the team from using the car's hybrid system, robbing the GT-R LM Nismo of half its horsepower and rear-wheel drive. That was never going to go well. Can the engineers get the GT-R LM Nismo to work properly? We don't know. But we'd like to see them get a proper chance to get it right. Related Video:

Nissan quietly, quickly installing more CHAdeMO stations

Nissan Leaf electric-vehicle sales continue to grow. And the number of US fast-charging stations that the Leaf can use are growing, well, faster. As it should be. Nissan has made good on its early-2013 vow to help ensure that the number of CHAdeMO stations in the US tripled by mid-2014, with Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas emerging as the most prevalent US markets, Green Car Reports says. In fact, the number of such stations, which can charge a Leaf to 80-percent battery capacity in about a half hour, has jumped to 633 from about 160 as of January 2013. About 180 are at Nissan dealerships, and that number should continue to surge since Nissan plans to aggressively add fast-charging stations through next March. Nissan spokesman Brian Brockman, in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen, confirmed those numbers and added that companies such as NRG, through its eVgo program, are also adding fast chargers throughout the country. The continued increase is good news for drivers of the Mitsubishi i (okay, we admit, there are not that many of them out there) and future drivers of the Kia Soul EV, as both of the models are CHAdeMO-compatible. Granted, the US has nothing on Europe, where the number of CHAdeMO stations has jumped to more than 1,000 from about 600 stations early last year. Nissan expects the continent to have about 1,800 fast-charging stations by year end. Still, the number of US CHAdeMO stations dwarfs the number of Tesla Motors' Supercharger stations, which total about 100.