Although Detroit’s NAIAS is thought of as the first big auto event of the year, the presence of automobile giants at CES suggests that the Las Vegas event is fast becoming the kick-off of the year’s major auto events in regards to in-vehicle computing. We saw some interesting stuff at the automotive area of CES 2012 this year, one among which is the RoadRover Android-powered dashboard.

As you might know, the company already provides its service via a number of vehicle models such as Audi A3, Nissan Altima, Peugeot 407/408, Toyota Tundra, Chevrolet Captiva and others.

With the RoadRover Android system, you will be able to synchronize data among Android-powered devices such as smartphones and tablets.  You will have access to Android Market for playing with a lot apps from the comfort of your car and get access to Facebook updates and tweets via your connected smartphone.

They are also providing external USB camera support which lets you take pictures while traveling and you will be able to upload everything right away onto your Facebook profile. But for that also, you just need your handset. Let’s not forget about its navigation capabilities too.

[ source ]

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After decades of electric cars being avoided by manufacturers, it seems that recently electric cars are really starting to go somewhere (pardon the awful pun). A combination of improving electric batteries and increasing gas prices have likely lead to this change. Competition is fierce in the automotive industry, Nissan and Ford are both offering vehicles that use electric batteries. And now Honda looks to be joining the electric party with its 2013 Honda Fit EV. The all electric Honda hatchback runs on a 20-kilowatt-hour li-ion battery and high-density 92-kilowatt coaxial electric motor. The coaxial electric motor is actually derived from the motor in the Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle. Onboard a 6.6-kilowatt 32-amp charger allows for convenient recharging. When paired with a 240-volt charging port, the Fit EV can fully recharge in as little as three hours. A full charge can travel about 123 miles, which is higher than both the Nissan Leaf and Ford’s all-electric Focus.

The Fit EV will start rolling out in the summer of 2012 to a limited market in California and Oregon, and will spread out to at least six undisclosed East Coast markets in early 2013. The lease payment will target $399 a month for three years and is based on a $36,625 price point.

The downside to the Honda of course is that they are only targeting 1,100 units over the first three years of production. Also keep in mind that with the Honda Clarity only 50 cars have actually made their way into the hands of leasees even though there was an initial queue of over 80,000 interested customers.

Vehicles aren’t the gas-guzzling machines they used to be as hybrid and even all-electric methods are becoming more commonplace than ever before.

Overall, the Fit looks like another interesting electric option. Is the electric car the wave of the future or just a temporary trend that will be replaced by another emerging technology? Only time will tell for sure.

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Nissan messed up. Though naysayers hate on electric vehicles because of low ranges, lack of refueling stations on every corner and expensive batteries, things looked promising for the all-electric Leaf. The EV has won several car awards, including the 2011 European Car of the Year and the 2011 World Car of the Year, and currently ranks as the most efficient EPA certified vehicle for all fuels ever. The EV has received praise from critics and was met with enthusiasm from consumers. But now Nissan has dropped customers from the waiting list for the car and asked them to reapply, if a USA Today report is to be believed. This has angered customers who have been waiting for months for the car and have faced multiple delays.

Customers have described delivery dates being moved back several months, and some fear they might have to wait too long and no longer be able to obtain federal tax credits to make the car more affordable. There were 20,000 pre-orders in the United States for the vehicle’s debut, which led Nissan to stop taking orders until they had shipped out the existing orders. On May 1st, Nissan reopened reservations to US customers in certain states. Folks itching for a Leaf have been waiting for months now, and we’ll see if they’re willing to wait even longer for their zero-emissions car.

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You decided to do your part for the environment and buy a shiny new electrified Nissan Leaf. You’re cruising down the highway, amazed at how quiet the car is, then, something out of the ordinary happens. You run out of juice. Now what do you do without your 200 Amp, 240 Volt charging station near by?

Range anxiety could become more of an issue than many may think, for companies selling the EVs, they believe it is something to take into consideration. This is why the Japan Automobile Federation hopes to eliminate much of those fears that keep many people skeptical and wary of EVs. If my Leaf will only run for 75-130 miles on a charge, what’s going to happen next? We’re used to gas stations being positioned on nearly every street corner, so we can expect our gas to be there. But with EVs under the $50k mark, we’re not going to get the range of say a Tesla Roadster (250 miles). Although most people do not commute more than 33.4 miles a day, on average. So why all the anxiety? Perhaps its those road trips, the off time when we’d like to just take off and go for a while. With that in mind, Nissan is running a trial in Japan where roadside service vehicles carry an EV charger with them. Nissan built the prototype service truck which will charge EV drivers who don’t have enough juice to get home. The trial started in  Kanagawa Prefecture this week, which uses a Nissan Leaf as its governor’s official car. JAF will deploy the roadside service vehicle with the charger from its Kanagawa branch office. In December 2010, JAF conducted roadside assistance training for EVs using a Nissan Leaf at the Nissan Education Center for its staff from throughout Japan. They also initiated practical roadside service training across Japan using other EVs beside the Leaf. Will it come to the US? Only time and stranded EV drivers will tell.

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A report released by Zpryme Research and Consulting to shed some light on brand loyalty going into the age of electric vehicles shows that, despite a year of recalls and bad press, Toyota fans remain the most loyal customers of any brand.

In the web-based survey of 1,046 U.S. drivers age 18-65, 57 per cent of Toyota owners indicated they would prefer to buy an electric vehicle of the same brand as their current car than that of any other brand, followed by Honda at 54 per cent and Ford at 48. By comparison, only 43 per cent of Chevy and Nissan drivers would buy an EV from the manufacturer of their current car, followed by 28 per cent of Hyundai drivers and only 18 per cent with a GMC.

“I think there’s two compelling cases we’ve found here,” said Zpryme managing director Mark Ishac in an interview with Mobile Magazine. “Regardless of Toyota’s subpar year last year and recalls, they still have a substantial consumer base that believes that they still want to purchase those products. They still believe in the Toyota brand.

“That’s huge,” says Ishac.

According to the report, Hyundai, Chrysler, Dodge and GMC’s lower numbers suggest the brands are “less inclined to be associated with new technology and will struggle should they decide to enter the EV market without a branding effort to redefine themselves as manufacturers of compelling EVs.”

But that doesn’t mean the drivers of those brands aren’t looking to make the switch. Despite the fact that they aren’t likely to buy an EV sporting the same mark as the car they’re currently driving, 45 per cent of Hyundai drivers expressed they’re likely to buy an electric vehicle in the next two years – more than the drivers of any other brand. Nissan and Toyota both stand at 43 per cent, followed by GMC and Honda at 36 and Chevy and Ford at 35 per cent.

“Hyundai owners have been known to be very cost-conscious,” says Ishac. “You could say that the same thing about the GMCs: Traditionally, a very cost-conscious group. Those are SUV and truck drivers, so with the gas prices, they see the electric vehicles are a cost-saving alternative.

“It’s not necessarily a natural transition for an SUV or a truck owner to move into the electric vehicle segment, but it’s very appealing that they could save money in the long run with the electric vehicle,” he says.

At the bottom end of the results, Dodge and Chrysler drivers seem to be some of the least apt to adopt the new technology, and if they did, they’re even less apt to buy electric cars from the same mark as what they’re currently driving.

But brand loyalty won’t have a lot of sway in the beginning, Ishac says.

“The one interesting aspect of the electric vehicle market is that it’s really going to be spearheaded by the advocates and the evangelists. They’re more excited that there’s an electric vehicle market available rather than a brand.”

Zpryme also believes that disenchantment with a certain make or model of EV is unlikely to be tied to any companies in the beginning, he says. “For example, the Chevy Volt – at least, based on a new consumer report survey – didn’t get very rave reviews. But that won’t necessarily hurt the Chevy brand.

“I think those early adopters are just happy to reserve the car, to have their car and that it’s electric…It’s more about selecting an electric vehicle that best fits your needs rather than the best brand” for the first round of purchasers, he says.

[Zpryme via PDF report]

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I was pretty stoked when I first saw the R35 Nissan GT-R. The Skyline moniker carries with it a lot of tradition and it looks like the newest Godzilla just got itself a sizable upgrade. The 2012 Nissan GT-R may not look all the different from the one introduced a few years ago, but this is even more of a beast than before.

Granted, I have never driven any Skyline, but I know about its reputation and I respect that. For 2012, Nissan is tossing in an even more powerful engine at still the relatively cheap supercar-killing price range. You get a 3.8L twin-turbo V6 good for 45 more horsepower than its predecessor. I hear that it’s able to run the quarter mile in 11.1 seconds bone stock. Run some more boost, add some bolt-ons, and you’re easily in the 10s, if not the 9s.

Motor Trend’s brief video review also highlights the return of launch control. Want to hit the drag strip? R-Mode Start Function is what you want. Do that and you’ve got a 2.9 second 0-60mph time. That beats the outgoing version by half a second. Is it refined? Maybe, maybe not. Is it one hot car that’ll wipe the pants off cars twice its price? Absolutely.

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Nissan is following up their Leaf EV with something a little more showy, turning their sights to a 370Z concept sports car to turn some heads at next months Geneva auto show.

The electric Z was redesigned from the ground up, with two electric motors mounted above the rear axel that can propel the car from zero to 60 in less than five seconds. Its li-on battery will get a range of 149 miles, they say, but aren’t giving out any specifics. And the composite body will be matched by an aluminum chassis.

There’s no word yet on whether this is going to stay a concept, hit production, be altered and cloned, dumbed down and/or released at a future date. And there’s no word on what that date might be if, when or whether the car or some spin-off model is considered for production. As it stands, this car is a concept and a prototype in front of the promise that Nissan is looking to build a full range of electric vehicles.

But it sure is pretty.

[Wired]

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I’m not completely convinced that electric vehicles are the future, but they do seem like they could be a viable intermediary. Case in point is the Nissan New Mobility Concept. It’s not a car in the traditional sense, but it’ll get you moving.

This vehicle is basically a rebadged Renault Twinzy with a sticker reminding us of its zero emission nature. Nissan says that it can be used for “seamless mobility service” and for “two-mode EV car sharing.” Basically, it’s a short commuter with a presumed range of 25 to 40 miles or so.

The open sides remind me too much of a golf cart, making it not as pleasant under rainy or windy conditions and the profile makes me think of the Smart Car, which I don’t particularly like in the first place. This is just a concept, so no one really needs doors in the auto showroom.

I think I’d much rather roll around town in a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf, but I guess the Nissan “New Mobility Concept” vehicle has its place somewhere too. Like on the back lots of Warner Bros or while navigating through the back nine.

SOURCE: Nissan

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Taking a page out of the Lord of the Rings, Nissan’s latest crossover vehicle the 2011 Juke is quite different looking; fitting for the unconventional commercial which follows. The Juke is a type of crossover, it’s got a 1.6L engine with 188 hp making it one of the smallest engines in a crossover in North America.

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