2015 Nissan Premium on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Since 2010, Chevy Volt has outsold Nissan Leaf by just two units

The first two plug-in vehicles from major automakers in the US were the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. Ever since they went on sale to much fanfare in late 2010, we've been tracking the monthly sales with great interest (and, of course, other green vehicle sales as well). After a big initial lead by the Volt – the Volt outsold the Leaf 23,461 to 9,819 in 2012 – the Leaf has been chugging along and outsold the Volt every month since November 2013. We knew that the cumulative totals would soon tip in favor of the Leaf, but for at least one more month, the Volt is going to be able to say its the most popular plug-in vehicle in the US. Overall, for all officially reported sales of the Leaf and the Volt, things are almost exactly tied. Since the vehicles went on sale in the end of 2010 until the end of February 2015, the Volt has sold 74,592 units and the Leaf has sold ... drumroll please ... 74,590 units. For February, Leaf sales totaled 1,198 units, a 17-percent drop from the 1,425 Leafs sold last February. Brendan Jones, Nissan's director of Electric Vehicle Sales and Infrastructure, said in a statement that, "Tough winter weather in several key markets held EV sales back in February. As we head into spring, we look forward to seeing more dealership traffic so shoppers can experience firsthand the benefits of the all-electric Nissan Leaf." Of course, it was cold in the US last February, too, but we're sure that the nasty weather did indeed play a role last month. Things were even worse for the Chevy Volt, which dropped to just 693 copies sold, down 47 percent from the 1,210 sold last year. That's just barely enough for Chevy to keep talking about its plug-in sales leadership, but we expect the message to change once the March numbers come out next month. Related Video:

Renault ousts CEO days after Nissan gets a new one

Newly-appointed interim CEO Clotilde Delbos and Chairman of Renault SA Jean-Dominique Senard. / Reuters   PARIS — Renault ousted chief executive Thierry Bollore on Friday, as the French carmaker and its Japanese partner Nissan seek to rekindle their alliance following the scandal-hit tenure of former alliance supremo Carlos Ghosn. Tensions between Renault and Nissan, which picked a new CEO on Tuesday, have been high since Ghosn's arrest in Tokyo last year on allegations of financial misconduct, which he denies. Bollore, who was close to Ghosn and had strained relations with Nissan's previous boss, will be replaced on an interim basis by Renault finance director Clotilde Delbos. With new faces at the helm, Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard is hoping to draw a line under almost a year of turmoil and revive cooperation between two carmakers once seen as destined to fully merge. That is vital at a time when auto markets are slowing and carmakers are having to invest in costly new technologies as well as meet challenging European emissions regulations. "We're at a new stage now for this alliance. Sometimes you need new management ... to breathe new life into things," Senard, who was brought in earlier this year from tyre maker Michelin, told a news conference in Paris. He said three members of Renault's 18-strong board abstained in the vote to remove Bollore, who hit out at his looming dismissal in a newspaper interview the night before, calling it a coup. Following Ghosn's arrest, a feeling of stagnation around joint Renault-Nissan projects, including on issues such as advancing on cost savings, had begun to set in, people at Renault have said. These would now be the first priority, according to a source close to the carmaker. "There are a lot of concrete matters that have already been identified, including on the industrial front: working on batteries, electric vehicles, connectivity, purchasing and self-driving cars," the source said. Shares in Renault closed up 5.1%. 'Coup de force' Tensions between Renault and Nissan were further inflamed this year, including during various spats over governance reforms, and after a failed deal to pair Renault up with Fiat Chrysler, which withdrew a merger offer. Senard reiterated on Friday that a tie-up with Fiat, which was abandoned in June, was not at present on the agenda.

The art of racing the Nissan GT-R

There's no question that the Nissan GT-R is one of the very fastest cars that money can buy, and that its sophisticated all-wheel-drive system and active suspension give its drivers an absurd level of control at speed. In fact, the GT-R's technical brilliance and video-game quickness often spur armchair critics to make absurd claims that kind of amount to: "The car basically drives itself."
Having a bit of fun with those particularly salty members of the peanut gallery, YouTube producers at That Racing Channel have put together an instructional video about the finer points of GT-R driving and street racing. Scroll down below to get an idea about just how difficult Godzilla can be to keep hold of at the limit.