leaf

Looking to breathe a bit of excitement into its electric vehicle efforts, Nissan will be putting its Leaf of the race track--if but in name alone.

Debuting at the 2011 New York auto show, the 100% electric Nissan Leaf Nismo RC (Racing Competition) prototype shares little more than its lithium-ion battery technology, general styling cues, and its name with the Nissan Leaf we're familiar with. The RC wheelbase is 3.9-inch shorter wheelbase, overall height has been chopped by 13.9 inches, and there are two fewer doors. However, the racer is 0.8 inches longer overall and 6.… Read more

Nissan Motor has received complaints from owners that its Leaf electric car on occasion fails to start, posing a potential setback for the automaker's goal of promoting zero-emission vehicles.

Japan's No.2 automaker said today it is looking into the exact cause, which it traced back to the Leaf's air-conditioning unit. Nissan is investigating whether the glitch was in a certain component or the programing, spokesman Toshitake Inoshita said.

Nissan plans no recall for now since the issue does not affect safety but will decide how to proceed after identifying the source of the problem, he said. … Read more

GM's Chevrolet Volt and Ford's MyFord Touch and MyKey won the domestic carmakers' gold medals at the Edison Awards gala held in New York last night.

The technology awards show highlights breakthrough products and services and recognizes innovative industry leaders. Basically, it's like the Oscars for technology companies, but with much, much longer speeches and videos.

In the Personal Transportation segment, the Chevy Volt beat out the Copenhagen Wheel by Senseable City Lab and the Nissan Leaf for first place. Senseable City Lab and Nissan earned the silver and bronze medal respectively.

Ford was the big awards … Read more

Huawei has hit back at various allegations against the company, including those over supposed links with the Chinese military, financial support from the Chinese government, and threats to U.S. national security.

In a lengthy open letter released yesterday, Huawei USA chairman Ken Hu said these "falsehoods have had a significant and negative impact on our business activity and, as such, they must be addressed as part of our effort to correct the record." He invited U.S. authorities to investigate Huawei and its security.

Hu's letter was prompted by the U.S. administration's opposition to … Read more

Customers registered to buy a Nissan Leaf electric car will take delivery before summer is over, the carmaker said yesterday.

Nissan delivered fewer than 20 Leaf cars in the first month of sales in December and another 89 in January. The company has had to assuage customers who thought they would be riding in an electric car by now.

Nissan's U.S. sales chief Brian Carolin said yesterday that increased production in Japan will clear the bottleneck.

"We're now in the process of ramping up. Production is going to be peaking up in March and April, so … Read more

No range anxiety here. Bill Markevitch just took delivery of the 2011 Nissan Leaf in Hawaii. A development executive for Hawaii Pacific Health in Honolulu, Markevitch plans to use photovoltaic panels installed on his home to have the sun power his car.

The Leaf has already launched in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, and Texas.

"We are excited about Nissan bringing the first Nissan Leaf electric vehicle to Hawaii," said Estrella Seese, acting energy program administrator of the State of Hawaii Energy Office. "The introduction of the Nissan Leaf will support our state's effort to move … Read more

Nissan Motor, Japan's second-biggest automaker, said today that Leaf production will reach full capacity by March at its factory south of Tokyo.

The company has gradually ramped up output of the Leaf, its first mass-marketed zero-emission car, since it started building them in late October, completing about 3,000 units to date.

By March, the pace of production will rise to full capacity of about 4,000 Leafs a month at the Oppama factory, putting Nissan on track to hit a target of producing a total 10,000 units by the end of March, a Nissan official said.

"… Read more

We got a peek into the future of dashboard technology with Visteon at CES 2011 and again with Denso at the 2011 Detroit auto show. But you don't have to check out concepts to see the dashboard of the future, because it's here today.

From MyFord Touch to the Nissan Leaf's video game-inspired instrument cluster, more and more vehicles are digitizing and reinventing the dashboards of today before our very eyes. We've rounded up a collection of the coolest dashboards that we've come across for your perusal. Enjoy!

It looks like automakers will be required by law to add audible alerts to silent-running electric vehicles to keep sight-impaired pedestrians safe.

President Barack Obama this week signed into law the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act (S. 841), which will protect the blind and other pedestrians from injury as a result of silent-vehicle technology, said the National Federation of the Blind.

The new bill, sponsored by Senator John Kerry, and 29 other co-sponsors, allows the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) begin crafting standards for an alert sound.

"The National Federation of the Blind is pleased that this critical legislation … Read more