Nissan Leaf to Make Nissan Money

Looks like EVs will be the treat for us all this year. The Nissan Leaf is set to make a splash in the US market and Nissan feels like it’s going to be their next cash cow.

Nissan has been focusing on performance cars for the past few years (the GT-R, the 350Z and the 370Z) so it’s nice to see that they’re keen on making this EV a mass-market thing.

The Leaf EV is powered by a 107 hp electroc motor that gets its juice from lithion-ion batteries. The car has an effective range of 100 miles and a top speed of 87 mph.

The pace of orders peg Nissan to get orders for 25,000 units. That volume is considered decent enough to make the Japanese automaker some decent dough.

Nissan Nuvu to Help Profitability

How much is a Nissan badge compared to Tata’s? $1000. At least in the battle of the people’s car.

Nissan doesn’t want Tata to take the whole chunk of the third world market with the Tata Nano, that’s why the Japanese automaker tapped its Indian partner Bajaj Auto to create the Nissan Nuvu.

The Nano’s currently selling at $2,500 in India. Nissan plans to keep its pricing competitive with a $3,000 price tag. Nissan plans to sell it in emerging markets in Africa and Asia.

The Nuvu is expected to go on sale in 2011. The Indian market is dominated by sub-$8000 models. The Nissan badge and the price tag is expected to give the car an edge over its rival.

Video: Nissan Sentra SE-R Commercial

These guys from Nissan are quite clever. In this point in time where the economy has yet to pick up, there really isn’t a lot of use in making expensive things explode just to get people to buy products.

Instead of having cars and helicopters drive and fly around for a visually-stimulating advertisement, the Nissan Sentra SE-R ad simply scaled down everything.

The ad features a remote-controlled car 1/10th the size of the real one powerslide through a real street. You read that right. Powerslide.

There’s a chopper too albeit an RC one too.

New Nissan Micra Unveiled

It’s the Geneva motor show so we can just expect more pictures and details on the slew of debuts. This here’s the unveiled new Nissan Micra.

The Euro-spec version of the car is powered by a choice of two engines – a 1.2L 3-cylinder gasoline engine that dishes out 79bhp and 80 lb-ft of torque and supercharged 1.2L engine that dishes out 97 bhp and 105 lb-ft of torque. The supercharged version will feature a start-stop system as well.

Buyers will be able to choose between a CVT transmission and a proper manual. The car will also have a collection of add-ons like parking sensors with “parking space measurement,” touch-screen sat nav and automatic wipers.

The new version’s built on an all-new global V-platform that’s designed in Japan but will be built in various Nissan plants in Mexico, China, Thailand, and India. European sales are set to begin in Europe.

Nissan 370Z Black Edition

Nissan may not be releasing something new for now but updates on its existing fleet would be most welcome. We’re pretty sure that they’re still milking all the development and hype they’ve given cars such as the GT-R and the 370Z.

Anyway, here’s a special edition of the 370Z sports coupe – the Nissan 370Z Black Edition. The car’s built to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nissan’s Z cars.

Powering the car’s the same 3.7L engine from Infiniti found in the standard 370Z. The car gets some added goodies though which include red leather and suede interior, leather steering wheel, and a touchscreen sat nav inside.

Outside the car gets either a metallic black or quartz paint job while it sits on 19-inch rims. The car also gets red brake calipers for good measure.

Only 370 of these babies will be hitting Europe and would cost around $52,500 (£33,645) for a manual and $54,680 ( £35,045) for an automatic.

Source: Autocar

Top 10 Best Cars of the Decade

So it’s the year and the decades end and it’s all about lists. So we’ve made our own and checked it twice on our pics for the best cars of the decade. Largely our basis for choosing is the car’s impact to motoring. If it’s all about speed and performance supercars will pepper the list. For some reason, it does, but that doesn’t stop us from looking at the sensible side of things.

10. Toyota Prius

While die-hard gear- and petrolheads aren’t throwing in the towel yet in this econmentalist revolution that has affected the motoring industry, we have to admit the the impact of the hybrid. It might be slow to drive and you might look like a smug and sanctimonious bastard who likes the smell of his own farts owning one. But it did challenge the status quo regarding cars and saving the planet. And quite frankly, whether we like it or not, that’s where motoring is headed.
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