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A joint project by Nissan, motor-sport division NISMO, NOVA Engineering and Nordring tuning has enabled the availability of a Track Club Edition of the Nissan GT-R. This offer is only for the Japanese market and sources say applications are being accepted until September 20.
The third generation Elgrand for the Japanese market has been announced by Nissan, which calls the vehicle the ‘King of Minivans.’ The model will be out in Japan later this month. The vehicle is due to be out in the US market in early 2011, and will be known there as the Nissan Quest. In the US it will be on the same platform as the Elgrand, with certain stylistic differences.
Interest towards the Nissan Leaf has suddenly surged, after a brief lull. Though there had been lots of interest for pre-order, there had been a fall in numbers as time went by. However, the Leaf is seeing a comeback in interest. The car maker is said to be steadily jacking up more potential sales though not in the same tempo as it used to be earlier.
According to Nissan, Leaf’s pre-order status in the US market place which stood at 13,000, plus an additional 6,000 in Japan, has now gone up to more than 15,000 in the US. It looks like more US buyers are ready to shell out $99 as reservation fee to be in line to drive the initial batches of the Leaf.
It may be also noted that the pre-orders for the Nissan Leaf in the US and Japan combined would stand somewhere well over the 20,000-levels. In case you are interested to know what color is being most sought after, market analysis says that around 29 percent of the recorded pre-orders have chosen the Aqua Globe vehicle while the one with Silver hues comes in as the second most preferred at 26 percent.
The popularity of mainstream electric cars is on the rise and a good example is the soaring demand for the Nissan electric vehicle LEAF. Nissan has decided to produce 12,000 LEAF models for the year 2010 and in US alone, the number of bookings is 13,000. Add to this, the 6,000 LEAF models booked in Japan and this implies that the LEAF has been sold out in the US for this year. This is one of the first green commuters that has the potential to go mainstream unlike the Toyota Prius which was too heavily priced for a layman. The LEAF features an 80kW electric motor and it is powered by laminated lithium-ion batteries that give the green automobile a 99mile range on a single charge.
Nissan’s all-electric commuter LEAF is eagerly awaited around the globe and the big news is that its pricing has been officially announced. Slated to compete against the likes of the Chevy Volt, this green commuter will start selling in the Europe by the end of this year. The Netherlands pricing has been fixed at €32,839 (including sales taxes) while the Portuguese and the Irish will pay €29,955 for it. The English will pay even lesser for this affordable electric automobile at £23,350. As per Nissan, the LEAF may look like some simple family car but it will be a surprise package once people start getting behind its wheel.
Ohio-based aftermarket tuner Switzer Performance loves beastly engines and it mostly works its magic on the Porsches. This time around, Switzer thought about taking a gamble with the Nissan GT-R after a GT-R owner demanded Switzer to increase his commuters’ power-to-weight ratio. Switzer obliged by heavily cutting down on the weight and increasing the power. The specific P800 package used for the Nissan GT-R included new intercoolers, air intakes, turbochargers and exhaust along with a new spoiler and sports seats. The package worked its magic to reduce the overall car weight by 200 pounds while increasing the pony count by 300 to reach 800hp.
Nissan has gone ahead and released the first teaser image of the Redesigned Nissan Quest which is slated to hit the US market early next year. The Japanese will be more familiar with the Quest as it is based on the El Grand van. Nissan describes Quest as the perfect vehicle for buyers needing the size, safety, functionality and comfort that a minivan has to offer, without sacrificing style or driving pleasure.
The new Nissan Quest will be powered by a 3.7-liter VQ V6 engine capable of rendering up to 300hp and while the FWD will be standard, there might be an AWD variant that will be optional.
After Japan and the US, it will be the UK which will see a full-scale production of the Nissan LEAF EV in the company’s Sunderland plant. While the Japanese production commences this year, US will see the LEAF being produced in 2012 and the UK plant will follow a year later.
Nissan also intends to build an advanced lithium-ion battery plant in Sunderland and the construction should begin next month. While the automobile facility will render 50,000 LEAF units annually, the battery plant will have a capacity of 60,000 batteries per year .Collectively, the investment for both these projects will be somewhere close to an astounding £420 million. Nissan LEAF is touted as the first mass-produced and affordable family EV in the world and it will throng many streets across the world in a couple of years from now.
