Nissan CEO Talks New Cars, Sales Expectations

By any account, Nissan had a good year. Despite challenges in Asia and weakening consumer confidence in debt-ridden Europe, the Japanese automaker outpaced analysts' expectations for profits over the first half of its fiscal year, which ended last September. By year's end, Nissan's U.S. sales, including its Infiniti luxury division, improved 15%. Toyota and Honda ended 2011 with sales down 7% apiece, but they were greatly impacted by last year's tsunami in Japan, leading to far less dealership inventory than Nissan.

Ask CEO Carlos Ghosn to characterize Nissan's smooth sailing, and he tempers expectations: "If people are not upbeat, it's good," he said. "The company is moving into the right direction, even [though] there are a lot of headwinds."

Ghosn, 57, has been Nissan's chief executive since June 2001; he also oversees French automaker Renault, which has been allied with Nissan since 1999. He discussed Nissan's outlook for 2012 during this month's Detroit auto show, as well as at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit the same week.

Major products like the Altima and Sentra — Nissan's first and third best-sellers in 2011, respectively — are set for redesigns this year. Both cars have been in their current guise since late 2006, and both are part of a global barrage that will include a new product every six weeks on average through 2016, Ghosn said.

Shoppers Say Chevy Volt Expensive, Nissan Leaf Ugly in Study

Despite their small share of total vehicle sales, the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius garner a lot of attention from new-car shoppers, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2012 Avoider Study.

The study finds that gas mileage is the most important attribute shoppers are looking at now, surpassing older key reasons such as exterior styling, reliability and price.

That puts the Volt, Prius and Leaf in a good position as each are among the most fuel-efficient cars in the country.

Nissan e-NV200 Concept at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show

• Looks like: A Leaf-themed bread toaster  
• Defining characteristics: Leaf charging door in nose, glass roof panels, Leaf-like range
• Ridiculous features: Two-tone, body-colored wheels
• Chance of being mass-produced: Nissan calls this a preview of a “near-future production version”

Nissan’s e-NV200 is an all-electric version of its NV200, a small, front-wheel-drive commercial van that is slated to become New York City’s official taxi cab in 2013. Compared to the four-cylinder taxi version, the electric e-NV200 Concept is gussied up with styling and interior cues similar to the electric Nissan Leaf.

More 2012 Detroit Auto Show Coverage

This concept’s electric innards are also borrowed from the Leaf and give the e-NV200 a similar range, Nissan says. The range of Cars.com’s long-term 2011 Leaf hovers around the EPA’s travel rating of about 73 miles per full battery charge.

Nissan Leaf Now Available in 30 States

The Nissan Leaf is now for sale in Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Along with Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., added over the summer, there are now 30 states where the Leaf is available.

Nissan expects to complete the Leaf’s nationwide rollout by March. The car’s staunchest competitor, the Chevrolet Volt, is already available nationwide.

So far this year, Nissan has sold some 8,720 Leafs, which is more year-to-date than other Nissan models like the Nissan 370Z or Infiniti EX. GM has managed to move only 6,142 Volts so far, even with wider availability.

Those numbers will likely guarantee the Leaf as the most popular electric vehicle for 2011.

Nissan Leaf Range Gets More Predictable

Using an entire month of data from the Cars.com long-term Nissan Leaf, we found that the electric-powered car was about 86% correct in gauging its remaining range.

When we first got the Leaf last winter — one of the snowiest on record in Chicago — we discovered that the EV’s range was totally unpredictable. In February, in mostly below-freezing temperatures, the Leaf would show erratic range numbers. In one instance, the range was only 24% accurate from the beginning to the end of the trip. No distance, condition or driver correlated definitively with the range results, according to Cars.com Executive Editor Joe Wiesenfelder.

Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Bring in New Customers

While total sales have been low so far, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are having a big impact by drawing customers that wouldn’t usually shop either brand, according to the L.A. Times.

Nearly 78% of Volt buyers didn’t own a Chevrolet before purchasing the plug-in electric. Nearly 90% of Leaf buyers didn’t own a Nissan beforehand.

Some 37% of Chevrolet Volt buyers are from California, which is a weak market for GM. The most frequently traded-in car for the Volt is the Toyota Prius, accounting for 7% of trade-ins, according to the L.A. Times. About 18% of the Nissan Leaf trade-ins are the Prius, says Nissan. Nearly 38% of all Leaf trade-ins are Toyotas.

Both vehicles are attracting shoppers who come to dealerships to look at the EVs, but ultimately buy something else in the lineups. Even so, the Chevrolet Cruze — a car that’s benefited from sharing a space with the Volt — only has a 48% conquest rate, which is just 5% more than Chevrolet’s overall conquest rate.

Prius owners are trading into electric vehicles (LA Times)

10-Minute Charge for Nissan Leaf Is Far Off

The Nissan Leaf highlights how far technology has come in terms of making an electric vehicle feel like a "real" car, but a big obstacle remains: charging times.

It takes the Leaf eight hours to charge completely using a faster 240-volt charging plug. Direct-current fast-charging can shave that time down to 30 minutes, Nissan says.

The automaker now says it’s working on a charger that can fill up the Leaf's battery cells in around 10 minutes, according to the New York Daily News. Researchers at Kansai University in Japan who are working in conjunction with Nissan say they’ve found a way to boost charging rates by changing the composition of the capacitor inside the charging unit. Commercializing the technology is still 10 years out, researchers say.

If the technology can be mastered, quick charging could have a huge impact on the commercial success of EVs. Early last week, ECOtality, a major installer of EV infrastructure, got certification for its fast DC charger, making the company one of the first suppliers that can install the 30-minute charging stations.

Until a 10-minute system arrives, the thought of "filling up" on electric is still not practical for long-distance travel.

Nissan Develops 10-Minute Electric Car Charger (New York Daily News, via Engadget)

Field Trial: Killing the Nissan Leaf's Battery

For all the talk of range anxiety with battery-electric cars, we've gotten nervous in our Nissan Leaf only a couple of times since Cars.com purchased it in February, and thanks to minor adjustments in speed or heater setting, we averted drama each time. Curious about the experience of a dead battery and Nissan's promise of free towing for owners who run "dry," we intentionally set out to overextend ourselves.

Nissan Leaf App Added for Android, BlackBerry Devices

The Nissan Leaf launched with an iPhone mobile application that allowed users to check the battery’s charge level, start and stop charging, and pre-condition the cabin, among other features.

Today, Nissan says those features are now available to users of Android and BlackBerry operating systems.

The app is available to any Nissan Leaf owner, CarWings subscriber (a service provider that helps remotely charge your EV), and to the general public interested in knowing more about the Leaf.

Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder uses the iPhone app regularly and finds it useful with pre-conditioning the cabin. Also, unlike the Chevy Volt mobile app, the Leaf app can be downloaded onto multiple smartphones to control the same car; the Volt app can only be used on one phone.

We downloaded the Leaf app on a BlackBerry Torch — overall the interface design looks the same as the iPhone — but we’ll have to live with it longer to see whether the functionality is the same on the BlackBerry.

Electric Cars Make More Sense When Gas Hits $4.50 a Gallon

The recent explosion in electric-vehicle models, like the Nissan Leaf, marks the third revival of mass interest for EVs. What will keep the public’s attention from dwindling this time around? It’s all about gas prices, according to a recent Harvard University study. Electric cars make sense to many cay buyers when gas prices stay at or above $4.50 a gallon nationally, the study found. Today’s national average gas price is $3.71 a gallon, according to AAA.

The study says electric cars cost on average $5,377 more than their gasoline counterparts upfront. Despite the savings that come from not filling up at the pump, EVs also cost $4,819 more over the life of the car compared with gas cars.

As the price of battery technology comes down over the next 10 to 20 years and gas prices presumably rise, the cost benefit should continue to increase.

Study: Electric cars won't catch on until gas hits $4.50 a gallon (USA Today)