The Detroit News' David Shephardson picked up some interesting quotes from Nissan-Renault Chairman Carlos Ghosn today.
In a panel organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, Ghosn was asked about the partnership the Nissan-Renault alliance sought to form with General Motors back in 2006 (talks were called off in October of that year). GM would have been far better off had this gone through, he said.
"Without any doubt. We knew fundamentally that this would work, but only if it was a collaborative effort."
It's important to keep in mind, he said, that GM and Nissan (and other automakers) are already unofficially link by common suppliers. "When General Motors was in danger, everybody was scared. We were scared. Because some of our suppliers are big suppliers of General Motors. If they go down, we would not have been able to assemble any single car in the United States."
Ghosn said he takes no joy in seeing the state of GM in 2009. "When you see the disaster and the waste of energy and skills and talent, nobody can be happy."
He further argued that consolidation is inevitable in the automotive industry, because there are too many players vying for a slice of a shrinking market.
Curious whether the new 2010 Honda Accord has an optional neck massager? How about the tow rating on the Ford F-150? And what about those European cars, they're always adding some new totally nonessential technological "feature."
Now there's an easy way to find out. Our 2010 Buyer's Guide lists every model change from every manufacturer. From colors to options to full redesigns, it's all there.
Those who have followed the Nissan GT-R since it was named the Skyline GT-R (R32) know that there was a variant called the M-Spec. It was part of the R34 lineup and was the favorite of many enthusiasts because of its compliant suspension and overall civility.
While the R34 V-Spec was made for the track, the M-Spec was more of a grand tourer, providing the best of both the performance and comfort worlds. The R34 M-Spec was the pet project of Kazutoshi Mizuno, the man behind the current GT-R (R35), the one we finally received in the States.
"We've always planned that after we released the SpecV, we were going to build the SpecM," Mizuno said.
And just like the first SpecM, the new one is meant to have a much more compliant ride, while little to no sacrifice in cornering prowess. The ride should be on par with the likes of Aston Martin or Ferrari, making it a road car first and a track car second.
The biggest surprise in all this is that the price of the SpecM will soar past that of the SpecV. While the Spec V is prices at 15,750,000 yen, the SpecM will go for 18,000,000, meaning that it will indeed be priced like a European supercar. The car's release may come as soon as early next year.
After Chrysler decided to pull out of its agreement this summer to build rebadged versions of its Ram truck for Nissan, the fate of the Titan looked grim.
We hadn't heard any updates since, but last night Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told Inside Line that the Titan will survive.
"Titan will have a replacement, we are staying in the large pickup truck market," Ghosn told us. He then said it could be built and designed in house or with a collaborator, but wouldn't get any more specific.
I managed to catch Nissan's zoomy Land Glider showcar -- and let's face it, you gotta have a zoomy showcar at the Tokyo show -- showing off for the crowd. It leans, you see, but it's all an act.
Motorcycles lean into turns because of physics. Cars like this one only lean into turns because they have complicated mechanisms that force them into position.
Affordable zero-emissions vehicles are here. That was Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's message at his 2009 Tokyo Auto Show press conference this morning. Prius owners can suck it, he added. OK, I made that last part up.
First, there's the Leaf -- a five-passenger, C-segment-size hatchback equipped with Nissan's proprietary lithium-ion battery pack. The Leaf is an EV from the ground up -- it doesn't share its chassis with any other vehicle. Range is said to be 160 km (100 miles), and Ghosn insists the Leaf will be price-competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size.
Want one? If you live in the U.S. or Japan, you'll be able to buy one in late 2010.
Other Nissan EVs will follow the Leaf. The second one planned will be targeted at commercial use and is based on the company's NV200 multipurpose vehicle.
The third will be a compact, high-performance luxury four-seater badged as an Infiniti. The fourth EV planned is the Land Glider, which I'll be bringing to you in a follow-up post.
We don't know if the valet circle at the massive Hilton Tokyo constitutes as a satellite booth at the Tokyo auto show, but it's awfully coincidental that both a red and a yellow Fiat 500 showed up at the same time. Park a Nissan GT-R in front of them and they get 10 times more interesting.
At a roundtable media dinner in Tokyo, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn fleshed out the company's strategy regarding zero-emission vehicles. The short of it is that battery electric vehicles (EVs) will dominate Nissan's efforts in the immediate term, with fuel cell vehicles "five to ten years down the road."
Ghosn's aggressive plans for battery EVs are rooted in the goal of converting 10 percent of the global car market to EV by 2020. He cited three primary reasons for pursuing zero-emission vehicles: national security, the instability of future oil prices and that EVs already have consumer demand.
Do you remember the day the original Nissan 240Z arrived? Yes? Well then, you sir are officially old. It's been nearly forty years since that fateful day in 1969, and Nissan wasn't about to let that date slip without tarting up a 370Z for buyers who are into that sort of thing.
In this case, the 40th anniversary 370Z starts out as a Touring coupe with a manual transmission. From there it gets special "40th Quartz" paint, a couple badges, red brake calipers and a unique smoke finish for the 19-inch Rays wheels. The interior is draped in red leather set off by various pieces of trim with red stitching. There's a commemorative plaque as well, so you know you're in the club. Sales begin next spring.
Although not exactly a new concept, the leaning car idea used by the Nissan Land Glider always looks kind of cool. In this case, the ultra-compact city car can lean up to 17 degrees, all of it calculated by on board computer to make you don't lean yourself right into the pavement.
Powered by an all-electric drivetrain, Nissan sees the Land Glider as fun-to-drive commuter car with an ultra-small footprint to make it easy to park. At just 122-inches long, the Land Glider is slightly bigger nose to tail than a Smart Fortwo.
A reporter from PistonHeads apparently struck up converstation with Nissan's VP of global product planning, Andy Palmer, who told him the Nissan GT-R would see significant updates around the year 2013. And evidently, those updates will be signficant enough to constitute the R36 generation of the GT-R. But don't expect the platform architecture to change. And don't expect Nissan to deviate from the current twin-turbocharged V6 and complicated, but brutally effective rear transaxle.
The Nissan Micra/March is the B segment Nissan most of the world gets instead of, or in addition to, the larger Renault-based Versa and the Cube. Today Nissan released sketches of the next March/Micra hatchback.
They're very preliminary, obviously, but the importance of this car is undeniable. It will be sold everywhere, and given tightening fuel economy standards, it's possible a version of it might come to the U.S.
So far, all we know is some information out of Thailand that 1.2-liter and 1.3 gasoline engines will be offered in the version sold there, along with a 1.4-liter diesel. The smallest gas engine would evidently be good for 47 mpg, but it's likely the diesel would top that.
The Detroit News' David Shephardson picked up some interesting quotes from Nissan-Renault Chairman Carlos Ghosn today. 
