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Nissan details Craigslist 1996 Maxima restoration

"Luxury Defined," in the most ironic sense the galaxy has ever known, is now "Luxury Restored," in the real and incredible sense. Last September, Luke Aker made ads to sell his 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE, the YouTube version being a mix truth, bombast, a British accent and a ratchet strap. The ad tickled Nissan such that it bought the car from Akes and made a donation to a charity of his choice. Then they consulted with the citizens of the Internet to decide what to do with it, the final vote being a complete restoration and display at the company's Nashville HQ.
Friends, Netizens, countrymen, the job is done. Nicknamed "Old Glory," comparing the old car with the new is like reading one of those shelter dog rescue stories where the loving family nurses an impossibly cute pup back to health with handheld nursing sessions, baby bottles of warm milk and whispered lullabies. Only Nissan probably didn't sing to the Maxima.
The Maxima is now on display, and we hope they've hung the ratchet strap with it. You can see Aker's new video on the transformation above, plus another video and press release below detailing the Maxima's journey back to New Glory.

Nissan Leaf's lead over Renault Zoe narrows in Europe

The Nissan Leaf has seen its sales steadily decline in the US for a while now. Here, its been eclipsed by the second-generation Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in while people await the next-generation version of the all-electric Leaf. The EV may be starting to receive a similar response across the Pond. While the Leaf remains Europe's biggest-selling EV, that lead is eroding, as sales of the Renault Zoe are catching up, according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO). It's a good thing Nissan and Renault are sister companies. Through May, Nissan sold about 9,500 Leaf vehicles in Europe. The good news is that number is up 37 percent from a year earlier. There's disconcerting news, too, and that is that the Renault Zoe's sales have surged 60 percent this year to almost 9,400 units. So, for all we know, the Zoe may have caught up with the Leaf last month. Still, both models are outpacing demand for the Tesla Model S and Volkswagen e-Golf: the former's sales are little-changed this year, while the latter model's sales have dropped 34 percent. The BMW i3, Kia Soul EV, and Mercedes-Benz B250e all have had higher sales this year. As for plug-in hybrids, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has maintained its substantial European lead, almost doubling sales of the Volkswagen Golf GTE and totaling almost 9,400 units sold through May. Meanwhile, the new Volvo XC90 PHEV has leapfrogged models such as the Volkswagen Passat GTE, Mercedes-Benz C350e, and Audi A3 e-Tron into third place behind the Mitsubishi and VW. Here in the US, Nissan Leaf sales through June fell 41 percent from a year earlier to about 5,800 units, while Chevrolet Volt sales have surged 75 percent to 9,808 units. Featured Gallery 2016 Nissan Leaf View 30 Photos News Source: EAFO, Getty via Green Car Reports Green Nissan Renault Electric ev sales zoe

Obama Administration wants 200-mile EV that charges in under 10 minutes

When it comes to electric vehicles, you can find issues preventing mass adoption pretty much anywhere. Which is why you can then also look for solutions pretty much anywhere. That's the method the Obama Administration announced yesterday and it involves everything from shorter charging times to more public chargers, from bigger government fleets of electrified vehicles to an "Electric Vehicle Hackathon." The new plan is looking into blistering charging speeds of up to 350 kW. Perhaps most exciting, there was a commitment made to try and increase the speed of fast charging. Today, Tesla's Supercharger network has the fastest public charging available ( up to 145 kW), but the new plan is looking into blistering speeds of up to 350 kW. That's fast enough to recharge a 200-mile EV in under 10 minutes. Another cool future was promised by the Battery500 Consortium goal, which wants to create better batteries that cost under $100 per kWh. There was no actual technology revealed at this time, but announcements like this are about new ways to approach the future, not the nitty-gritty technical details. That's why the new announcement touts the fact that 12 utilities and charging companies have committed to increase their deployment of EVs and charging infrastructure, that there are 35 new partners (businesses, non-profits, universities, and utilities) for the DOE's Workplace Charging Challenge, and that there will be an EV "Hackathon" this fall to, "discover insights and develop new solutions for electric vehicle charging." The White House's announcement comes on the heels of the first-ever Sustainable Transportation Summit (STS). The STS was sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and was held earlier this month in Washington, DC. After all this activity, almost 50 companies and organizations have signed on to the new "Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure" document, including the usual suspects: Tesla, BMW, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Chargepoint, the California Air Resources Board, and the State of California (notably, the usual suspects are also missing). You can read the entire announcement from the White House here, but we've put the Guiding Principles below. The Obama Administration has made strong pushes for electric vehicles before, including proposals to increase the tax credit for EV buyers to $10,000, among other things.