Fancy yourself the next Lewis Hamilton? Yeah, us too--that's why our ears perked up like little meerkats when Nissan and Sony started a competition to let gamers become real racing drivers.
The international GT Academy competition--the second since 2008--is split into four main stages. Stage one requires competitors to record flying laps on a time-trial-based track in Gran Turismo 5 via the PS3's PlayStation Network. The 20 fastest entrants in each country will qualify for stage two--a national final. In stage three, the 20 fastest entrants from stage two will battle it out to reach the next round--a five-day boot camp in which they'll have the chance to drive real-life sports cars, including the latest Nissans, around Silverstone.
Read more of "GT Academy: Become a real-life racing driver with Nissan and Sony PlayStation" at Crave UK.
Utility company NRG wants to sell charging plans for the Nissan Leaf.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
The CEO of one of America's biggest electric utility companies is putting his shoulder behind Nissan North America Inc.'s campaign to sell electric vehicles.
Among his ideas: sending marketing materials for the upcoming electric Nissan Leaf with customers' monthly electric bills.
"I think we can play a role in what Nissan is doing," said David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, N.J., which provides electricity in cities around the country.
"We send monthly statements out to 1.5 million customers in the Houston area," he told Automotive News. "That's a lot of marketing potential."
Houston is one of Nissan's biggest markets. NRG owns the Houston power company, Reliant Energy.
This month Reliant signed on to join a growing list of third-party partners helping Nissan launch Leaf sales in selected markets late next year. Nissan has been recruiting utilities, state governments, municipalities and others to help install highway recharging stations and address residential zoning rules to make home recharging easier.
Crane envisions doing more than that. He proposes that Reliant act as a Nissan retail service supplier in Houston. When customers buy an electric vehicle, they could buy a Reliant charger installation package from the Nissan dealer. The package, financed along with the car, would deploy Reliant staffers to do the necessary work on the customer's home.
Crane also wants to market recharging plans through Nissan dealerships, similar to cell phone plans. "We could have different plans available, depending on the customer's needs," he said. "It might guarantee you so many recharges a month at public stations or give you so many charges a month on a rapid-charge system."
Electric-vehicle chargers come primarily as a traditional 220-volt plug-in that takes up to six hours to recharge a vehicle's battery completely. A more expensive high-voltage charging system that takes less than an hour also will be installed around cities.
(Source: Automotive News)
Nissan's all electric Leaf goes into mass production next year.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Automakers tend to agree that the electrification of the car is inevitable, but Nissan is leading the way by readying a mass-market, affordable electric car for production. The Leaf is a midsize hatchback with a range of a little more than 100 miles, according to Nissan. Although Nissan didn't let us drive it, the company brought the Leaf to CNET's headquarters so we could get a close look at what might be the future of driving.
When Nissan first released pictures of the car, commenters found it ugly, with its bulbous headlights giving it a frog-like appearance. But in person, the length of the car mitigates that criticism. And looking over those headlights, we could see that they are longer, and more fin-shape than bulbous. The lights are LEDs, used because of their low power draw. The shape of the headlight casings has an aerodynamic purpose, splitting airflow around the side mirrors.
A hatch in front of the car conceals two plug-in points, one a standardized socket for electric vehicles and the other a proprietary Nissan design that can charge the batteries to 80 percent in 30 minutes. The Nissan plug, which would only work with very specific charging stations, uses DC power so that the onboard inverter doesn't have to convert external AC power for the DC batteries. The standardized plug will work with more sources, taking AC power from the grid and running it through the inverter, lengthening the time it takes to charge the batteries.
Nissan developed the lithium ion batteries for the Leaf in conjunction with NEC. The batteries are flat slabs that fit in the chassis of the car. Weighing about 500 pounds, the battery placement and distribution helps to lower the Leaf's center of gravity. Beyond charging from a plug, the Leaf also incorporates regenerative braking. Similar to the Tesla, as soon as you lift off the accelerator, regenerative braking kicks in, sending juice to the batteries and slowing the car.
The Nissan Leaf goes on sale in December of 2010 as a 2011 model. Nissan is counting on 20,000 preorders for the car, and will initially build them in Japan. By the third model year, the company expects to start producing them from its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.
The midsize sedan segment is far from exciting, but Nissan attempts to add some thrills to its Altima by giving it a coupe treatment. In coupe form, it gains a more striking profile, while losing rear doors and a little headroom. We had the least sporty of the Altima Coupe variants, with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a continuously variable transmission (CVT). It's a good thing that Nissan makes the best CVT in the business, offering a manual-transmission feel and excellent fuel economy.
In January, Nissan Motor will steer what has been mainly a luxury-car feature--the navigation screen--into new territory when it offers the standalone option in the Sentra compact for $400.
The color screen, supplied by Robert Bosch, provides navigation but also can be connected to an iPod or MP3 player and a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone.
The nav screen has become like the iPhone for cars--a gold mine for suppliers striving to provide applications such as traffic reports, parking-assist systems, and backup cameras.
This year automakers will install about 1.4 million navigation systems worth $2.6 billion in vehicles sold in North America, according to iSuppli, a Los Angeles consulting firm that tracks sales of consumer electronics. That's up from 890,000 systems worth $1.8 billion installed in 2004.
"By 2016, one in three cars will have a navigation system of some sort," says Phil Magney, vice president of iSuppli's automotive practice. If that prediction pans out, nav screens could be standard equipment in about 5.4 million vehicles sold annually in North America, he says.
| Lots of action |
|---|
| Functions are proliferating on navigation screens. |
| • Active parking assist on Ford and Toyota vehicles |
| • Telephone controls |
| • Traffic and points-of-interest information |
| • Controls for the radio and air conditioner |
| • Route guidance |
| • Fuel economy performance information for hybrids |
| • Live video from backup camera |
| • TV programs |
TOKYO -- Infiniti will get an electric vehicle as early as 2012, and Nissan Motor Co. also will create an electric commercial van to sell to governments and fleet customers.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said the electric Infiniti will be "a compact luxury car--a stylish, high-performance four-seater with zero emissions."
He did not say whether the electric Infiniti would use a unique platform or one derived from the Nissan Leaf family car. For several years, Nissan has been engineering separate platforms to keep the Nissan and Infiniti brands distinct.
Nissan says it's considering a production vehicle based on the Land Glider electric concept, which has only a driver's seat and a one-person back seat.
(Credit: Nissan)Nissan is ramping up to produce its electric five-passenger Leaf starting in late 2010, with hopes for sales as high as 150,000 units a year.
Ghosn said the commercial van will be an electric version of the NV200, a small light commercial van Nissan is preparing to build in Canton, Miss.
Andy Palmer, Nissan senior vice president in charge of zero-emission vehicles, Infiniti and global light commercial vehicles, suggested the electric vans could be used as taxis or postal delivery vehicles.
He also said Nissan was motivated by requests from governments and large delivery services for an electric delivery vehicle.
Separately, Nissan officials indicated that Infiniti also is considering a production vehicle based on an electric concept vehicle called the Land Glider. The futuristic concept is a narrow motorcycle-shaped car with only a driver's seat and a one-person back seat.
(Source: Automotive News)
Lexus is about to put the V-10 LFA into production; Ford puts batteries in the Focus; Nissan swears that goofy Land Glider is for real; we discuss why your cell phone may not work worth a damn in your next new car; and we take a ride in the luxury crossover that started it all.
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EPISODE 141
SHOW NOTES• Lexus' first supercar is reality: The LFA
• Honda CR-Z coming to the U.S.
• California energy rules could hamper in-car cell phone reception
Driving Sports TV takes an exclusive look at Illtech Auto Salon's Nissan R35 GTR project car. Here's a Web video describing what the technicians did to create this high-speed cruiser.
Purposeful is the best word we can think of to describe the 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster. The shifter is designed for the single purpose of letting you put it in the right gear. With a minimum of fuss, the handling lets you push the car through corners. And the engine generates a tremendous amount of power for such a small car.
With the top down, the passing scenery might try to distract from the pure joy of driving, but the nature of the car quickly brings you back to what's important, working throttle, steering wheel, and clutch in glorious harmony.
It doesn't hurt that you can get a solid suite of cabin gadgets in the 370Z Roadster. The navigation system can help you find good, mountain roads, and the stereo can serve as a soundtrack for the driving experience. And afterwards, you can use the Bluetooth phone system to call friends and rave about what a wonderful time you've just had.
NASHVILLE--A year ahead of selling its first electric car, Nissan North America is already wondering whether it will need more factory capacity for batteries.
The potential U.S. demand for electric cars is far from clear, but Nissan could find itself without enough batteries to meet its plans, says Carlos Tavares, Nissan Motor Co.'s chairman for the Americas.
The company is spending $2 billion to expand its plant in Smyrna, Tenn., to produce 150,000 five-passenger Nissan Leafs a year in 2012 and 200,000 lithium ion batteries to power the hatchbacks and serve as replacement batteries.
But Nissan also is developing two more electric vehicles to follow the Leaf, Tavares says.
And in addition to the three new electric models, the company eventually wants to convert some existing gasoline models to battery power, Tavares says.
"It would trigger additional capacity," he told a small group of reporters.
"The current invested capacity is not going to be enough."
U.S. Nissan dealers will not be the Leaf's only customers.
The $2 billion Smyrna investment is intended to supply dealers in all markets, from Canada to South America, Tavares says.
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