Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

Faced with a new kind of car never tested before, one man's unenviable mission was to solve all the electric vehicle's safety conundrums.

There is a man who has the heads-up on all the dangers you might face in a Nissan car. His research field is inexhaustible: Everything and anything that can happen to a vehicle. Whatever minute occurrence life throws at a car, it's his job to test it out.

At the 2012 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress in April, about 12,000 engineers from around the globe were in Detroit, Michigan to talk about where the auto industry is going.  In two words…getting connected.

“When we chose ‘get connected’ for this year’s theme, it was not meant in just the obvious way of connecting electric vehicles to the grid.

•    Renault-Nissan and state corporation Russian Technologies will form joint venture to accelerate product launches and technology transfer to AVTOVAZ, Russia’s largest carmaker.
•    Renault-Nissan will invest about US$750 million, and Russian Technologies will favorably restructure debt as they form the joint venture.
•    Renault-Nissan will get a majority stake in the joint venture, which will control AVTOVAZ; transaction is expected to be complete in 2014.
    
PARIS – May 3, 2012 -- The Renault-Nissan Alliance and state corporation Russian Technologies have agreed to create a joint venture and give the Renault-Nissan Alliance an indirect majority stake in AVTOVAZ, according to a new memorandum of understanding.

Auto China 2012, the nation’s biggest auto show, opened its doors to media on Monday in Beijing, with almost 90 global debuts and over 40 Asian premieres.

Interest in the Beijing event now rivals the worlds’ top auto shows, reflecting the critical importance of the Chinese market to the car industry.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance team caught up with CEO Carlos Ghosn at the New York international auto show and began by asking him about the Alliance’s latest industrial offensive in emerging markets - the opening of a new production facility at the Togliatti plant in Russia. Four hundred million euros are being invested into the new 250,000-square-meter industrial complex that will add capacity of up to 350,000 cars per year – Renault and Nissan models, as well as AVTOVAZ Ladas.

Watch the video interview here.

Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, blogger, presenter, writer… but did you know he was also a true EV enthusiast? And we are big fans of his. He’s test-driving our Renault Twizy and thinks it’s “pretty cool”…

Check out his video.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn spoke with the Global Media Center about EV batteries and development of energy storage solutions during a recent trip to the Zama plant in Kanagawa prefecture.

Thierry Koskas, Renault Program Director for Electric Vehicles and a member of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, tells The New Economy about the successful new models that are driving zero-emission motoring. Nissan has sold more than 27,000 LEAFs since launching the family hatchback in December 2010, and Renault has already taken more than 5,000 orders for its new EVs since they launched late last year.

Koskas also explains the changes making electric vehicles more appealing and accessible, and the behaviours they're set to change forever.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance factory at Oragadam, near Chennai, India – the first dedicated Alliance facility in which Nissans and Renaults are made side-by-side – is a modern and highly efficient plant producing top quality cars.

But there’s more. It’s now officially one of India’s safest and most environmentally-friendly factories, too.

That’s according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which has given the plant its top award for excellence in Environmental Health and Safety.

The luxury electric vehicle has landed – star of the New York International Auto Show is the Infiniti LE. Officially it’s still a concept but Infiniti admits that a production version of the sleek zero-emission sedan will hit the streets within the next two years “in near-similar form”.

Like the stunning Infiniti EMERG-E range-extender sports concept that wowed the Geneva Motor Show, the LE Concept combines a sweeping aerodynamic body – with a Cd figure of just 0.25 – with an elegant interior, inspired driving dynamics and advanced next-generation technology. The difference, of course, is that the LE is a 100 per cent pure electric vehicle.