The latest rumor is that the Infiniti electric sedan will be based off of the Renault Fluenze ZE electric concept, with Infiniti styling cue's. It will be around 177 inches long, about the size of the Leaf, but about 10 inches shorter than the G37 sedan.

It will slot beneath the G37 and offer both pure electric drive (mechanicals from the Leaf) and a regular FWD gasoline version. This is the car rumored to be coming as a FWD Infiniti, not the Teana. One clue suggested is that the shape of the concept already has more Infiniti styling influence than it does Renault styling cue's. Especially the side profile.

"Because we have a lame-duck Democratic administration that believes in this stuff." That's pure fantasy, since the history of the plug-in vehicle tax credit goes back to October 2008. Not that reality has any real connection to Fox, anyway.

California may have led the nation in trying to encourage purchases of electric cars. But now it's throwing a big roadblock in the way.

The state is ending its $5,000 rebate subsidies for purchases of electric cars, reports Jerry Hirsch in the Los Angeles Times. And in a double whammy, as we've already reported on Drive On, Nissan is raising the price of the only fully electric car from a major maker currently on sale, the Leaf. The new price will be $2,420 higher.

Between the $32,780 price that Nissan had been charging, the state subsidy and the federal government's $7,500 incentive, the price of owning an electric car in the Golden State had been driven down to the low-$20,000 range. No longer.

For the 500 or so recent buyers or those already on electric-car waiting lists, the state's clean-air regulatory body is considering rebates of $2,500, the Times says. Like many states, California has faced huge budget shortfalls.

Interestingly, California's rebate program doesn't include the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric -- presumably because it has a backup gasoline engine.

Electric cars won't catch on with most consumers until they are competetive with conventional cars on cost, range and fueling convenience, according to a new Harvard University study.

The study, "Will Electric Cars Transform the U.S. Vehicle Market?" by Henry Lee and Grant Lovellette at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, finds that plug-in electric hybrids, which have a gas engine in addition to batteries, are an average of $5,377 more expensive than gasoline-powered cars. All-electric vehicles cost $4,819 more over the life of the car.

Costs should fall over the next 10 to 20 years as batteries become cheaper and gasoline becomes more expensive, the study finds. Electric-vehicle sales will improve if gas hits an average of $4.50 a gallon and if battery technology improves enough to increase range at a lower cost.

TOKYO -- Infiniti's new boss is calling for new priorities.

Less than a year into his job as president of Nissan Motor Co.'s premium marque, Johan de Nysschen is tempering expectations that Infiniti will nearly triple sales in four years.

But de Nysschen remains committed to rapid growth, so he is putting a priority on new models that can deliver quick volume. That means deferring plans for an electric vehicle.

In addition, the halo cars he plans above the current lineup will be toned down from the dramatic sports-car concepts displayed at recent auto shows. They will be more practical, not pure performance offerings, he said.

The dial back may put de Nysschen at odds with Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who recruited the mustachioed South African from Audi last summer. Ghosn assigned de Nysschen the task of cranking Infiniti's global sales to 500,000 units in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Infiniti sold just 170,000 last year.

"I'm under absolutely no illusion -- 500,000 cars by 2017 is an inordinately ambitious challenge," de Nysschen, 53, said in an interview. "We really do have to get our heads around how we can bring the brand in that direction."

To hit that target, he's plowing new investment into starting Infiniti production in China and England and shepherding the launch of volume nameplates, such as an entry-level compact to debut in 2015.

De Nysschen also is pouring resources into at least two halo nameplates above the current flagship M sedan, which will be renamed the Q70. Offering the first public details on those plans, he said those cars will appear by 2020 and be based on the same platform.

The cars will be "high-performance luxury cars, not a sports car," he said. They also will not be variants of a flagship sedan competing in the same space as the Mercedes-Benz S class.

"It will be more Porsche Panamera-like than BMW 7 series-like," he said. "We could then quite conceivably use the same platform to create a more compact 2+2, two-door coupe that could perhaps just dial up the performance and design appeal."

The cars will be of the same ilk as the swept-back Essence concept hybrid coupe unveiled at the 2009 Geneva auto show, he said. The cars will share drivetrains but get different bodies.

What the halos won't be, he said, is a "true thoroughbred sports car" as foreshadowed by the curvy midengine Emerg-E hybrid concept that debuted in 2012 at Geneva.

Meanwhile, de Nysschen has deferred an Infiniti EV launch from the original 2014 timeline, partly because slow-selling EVs won't help him reach the half-million sales target.

No green light

"There will be an Infiniti EV. The question is one of timing," de Nysschen said. "We have a whole host of product priorities. We have to make very substantial investments now, and it's important that we expand our volume footprint quite quickly."

At the 2012 New York auto show, Infiniti unveiled a five-passenger LE concept electric sedan. Then in December 2012, the brand said it would launch an all-electric Infiniti -- the brand's counterpart to the Nissan Leaf -- in 2014. De Nysschen says that's on hold now.

"There has been no formal decision yet within the company to give the project the green light and let them start with investment," de Nysschen said of the EV. "In my evaluation of our business strategy, I introduced a whole bunch of additional considerations."

Ghosn's EV ambitions pose a challenge for Infiniti. Ghosn has said he hopes to sell 1.5 million EVs across the range of Nissan, Infiniti and Renault by 2016. The company has spent billions of dollars toward that goal. But cumulative sales so far are short of 100,000 units.

A cautious de Nysschen is balancing an Infiniti EV project against resources needed by other products, such as a halo car.

He said it is "quite an easy decision" to prioritize a product that will cultivate "brand positioning" and "expand our market footprint" over a car that has "perceived progressive technology but is not helping to expand the volume base."

"We had so many priorities," he said. The proposed Infiniti EV "was one where I said, 'Look, I need a little more time.'"

The outlook for EVs is clouded by the lack of a charging infrastructure, uncertainty about future government incentives and questions about where China stands on the technology, de Nysschen said. Rapid technological advancements in batteries also risk making an Infiniti EV quickly obsolete.

"We need to re-evaluate our assumptions," he said. "It would not be so smart to introduce a car when perhaps 12 or 18 months down the road you have all-new battery technology."

Volume vs. profit

If Infiniti falls short of 500,000, he said, it will be because it can't sell that volume profitably: "I will not put volume before profit."

Ghosn said recently that Infiniti's contribution to Nissan Motor's operating profit was "practically erased" in the past two years by the strong yen, which hammered margins on Japan-made exports. But the sharp weakening of the Japanese currency this year should put Infiniti back in the black.

De Nysschen said he won't be upset, "if we don't deliver 500,000 cars by 2016, 2017, 2018, as long as directionally at least we are moving there."

But, he said, "If we are still selling less than 200,000 cars by that time, then you will know the plan has gone wrong, big time."

At the New York International Auto Show next week Nissan will debut the world's first LCD-monitor rear view mirror to help aftward visibility.

The Nissan Smart Rearview Mirror, mounted in the traditional location at the top edge of the windshield, looks like a plain old piece of reflective glass on the surface. However, with the flip of the switch occupants can activate a full-width LCD screen that displays real-time images from a rear-facing high-resolution camera on the back of the vehicle.

The resulting image replaces the mirror's reflection with a 4:1 aspect ratio obstruction-free view of what's behind the vehicle. Tall passengers, cargo and even increasingly wide C-pillars are absent from the display, giving a clear panorama of what's behind the car.

In addition to the obvious safety benefits, Nissan Chief Planning Officer and Executive VP Andy Palmer said the Smart Rearview Mirror would allow stylists to pen never-before attempted designs, since vehicle shape will no longer be dictated by rear visibility. Even fuel economy can be improved, In particular, extremely aerodynamic shapes have the potential for greatly improving fuel economy.

The Smart Rearview Mirror will be shown on a 2014 Nissan Rogue at the NYIAS, but the first practical implementation will be on the Nissan ZEOD RC race car slated to run in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans.

"Under the harsh driving conditions in the world of motorsports, retaining a clear view for the race driver is of utmost importance," said NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani. "The Smart Rearview Mirror will be a powerful tool for our Nissan NISMO drivers. Also, we have high expectations towards improving the cars' aerodynamic design, thanks to the Smart Rearview Mirror, thereby expanding the possibilities of race cars to a new level."

Nissan Admits Emissions-Test Data Was Falsified

It is the second compliance scandal for Nissan, after faults in vehicle inspection procedures saw it recall more than a million cars last year

July 9, 2018 8:35 a.m. ET

TOKYO—Staff at some of Nissan Motor Co.’s Japan plants falsified auto-emissions and fuel-economy data, the company said, in what is the latest data-faking incident among Japanese manufacturers.

It is also the second compliance scandal at Nissan in recent months after it admitted to faults in vehicle inspection procedures.

Staff at four Nissan plants altered emissions and fuel-economy data for 913 cars tested as far back as 2013, the company said. More than a dozen vehicle models for the Japanese market were affected.

An internal review of vehicle testing also found other problems such as erroneous calibration of testing equipment.

Combined, bad testing and rewritten data affected a total of more than 1,000 cars.

Nissan said it found the problems during compliance checks launched at its plants after the discovery of flawed vehicle inspections last year. Other than one model still under investigation, Nissan said all of the affected vehicles met Japanese auto standards. The data alterations were made by staff to meet Nissan’s own stricter internal standards, it said.

“A full and comprehensive investigation of the facts…including the causes and background of the misconduct, is under way,” Nissan said Monday.

A Nissan spokesman said the affected cars wouldn’t be recalled because they all met Japan auto standards.

Nissan’s stock fell 4.6% in Tokyo after the company said it would make an announcement about vehicle emissions, which came after the market closed.

The Transport Ministry ordered Nissan to fully investigate the problem and, within a month, come up with measures to prevent a recurrence.

Late last year, Nissan said unauthorized workers at some plants in Japan had performed parts of final inspections—which includes confirming that the brakes and lights work—and inspection documents were then falsely stamped with authorized inspectors’ seals, equivalent to a signature in Japan.

Nissan recalled more than one million cars in Japan for re-inspection in that case.

In the past year or so, a string of Japanese companies have admitted to manipulating quality inspections, damaging Japan’s global reputation for producing high-quality products.

Some employees at Japanese manufacturers have said pressure to cut costs and keep production lines moving amid rising global competition have resulted in quality control being sacrificed.

An internal Nissan report into the inspection scandal last year blamed management for setting unrealistic targets, relying on factory workers to figure out the details. As a result, factory workers cut corners to meet those targets and then hid the evidence, the report said.

Nissan’s announcement Monday also marks the latest in a series of emissions-testing scandals to rock the broader auto industry in recent years.

Volkswagen AG has acknowledged rigging nearly 11 million diesel vehicles world-wide to cheat on emissions tests, including some 600,000 in the U.S. The company agreed to compensate owners, buying back or fixing the diesel vehicles equipped with illegal software that helped it pass government emissions tests but then pollute above allowable levels.

The U.S. Justice Department in 2017 sued Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, accusing the Italian-American auto maker of using illegal software on about 104,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-utility vehicles and Ram pickup trucks to help the diesel-powered vehicles cheat on government emission tests. Fiat Chrysler has denied the allegations.

Sadly, there most likely won’t be an all-new car to replace the aging Nissan 370Z for the 50th anniversary of Z next year. But the automaker wants to be clear that it hasn’t forgotten about that and the next-gen Nissan GT-R, both of which it plans on bringing back “one way or another.”

In an interview with Top Gear, Jean-Pierre Diernaz, one of Nissan’s marketing guys in Europe, said the company’s involvement in Formula E could help inspire the next generation of sports cars. Here’s the quote via Top Gear:

It’s been reported for years now that the next GT-R would likely be a hybrid, and Top Gear asked when we could expect that and a new Z, to which Dienaz responded:

This is also what I tell my parents when they ask me why I haven’t gotten married yet.

Diernaz also promised that the next GT-R “has to stay specifically Nissan,” suggesting that they wouldn’t rely on parts from their alliance with Mercedes or any other automakers for the flagship car. While that may be working out for Aston Martin sourcing AMG engines, it’s reassuring that not every GT car on the road will end up with the same parts in the name of cost cutting—though the cost savings could come from sharing batteries and motors parts with the rest of the Nissan lineup.

While Nissan is definitely dragging its feet on getting some fun new sports cars on the road, it’s just nice to hear them acknowledge it every once in awhile. Let’s hope all the waiting will be worth it.