Nissan LEAF leads electric car sales charge

SALES of electric cars more than doubled in 2014 compared to the previous year, new figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reveal.

Among the biggest sellers are Nissan’s LEAF and Vauxhall’s Ampera, but even at current rates the electric vehicles still only account for one in every 220 new cars sold in the UK.

THIS is the new Nissan Pulsar. Will it succeed?

SADLY Nissan's official pictures of its new Pulsar weren't released in time for this week's Champion column, but here is the company's new hatchback hopeful in all its glory.

What can you expect? Well, it's an all-new hatchback using an entirely turbocharged range of engines - a 1.2 litre petrol lump, good for 115bhp, a 1.5 litre turbodiesel which thumps out 110bhp, and - most excitingly of all - a 190bhp 1.6 litre which lands beneath the Pulsar's bonnet early next year.

There's no word yet on prices, but Nissan reckon they can conquer what your fleet manager unceremoniously calls ‘the C-Segment’ - as in the hotly-contested territory currently fought over by the likes of the Focus, Golf and Astra - by blending gadgets on the inside with nifty design detailing on the outside. In the company's own words, Nissan is taking over where the Almera left off six years ago by "using the same design approach and original thinking that produced the Qashqai, X-Trail and Note".

  
Will it work, or will the Pulsar end up stealing sales from Nissan's own Juke and Qashqai models? Only time will tell, but I'm looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the firm's family-friendly contender.

Nissan spices up the Micra with new limited edition

NISSAN is now offering the Micra with a choice of two-tone paintjobs in order to give the supermini a more youthful vibe.

The limited edition Micra, imaginatively called the Micra Limited Edition, costs £12,300 and is available with three different colour combinations – white and red, blue and white, and red and black.

Based on the existing Acenta trim level, which comes mid-way through the Micra in terms of gadgets and equipment, the Limited Edition follows a number of its supermini rivals in offering contrasting roof and mirror colours, notably the MINI One, Vauxhall Adam and Citroen DS3.

The new model, which comes with 15-inch alloy wheels, air-conditioning, cruise control, and a roof spoiler among other niceties, is available to order now.  

Nissan LEAF now easier than ever to own

NISSAN is aiming to make ownership of its electric cars a little less shocking with a series of new incentives.

Anyone looking to buy its zero-emissions LEAF hatchback can now recharge their car for free at any of its dealerships, borrow a petrol or diesel car for up to a fortnight if they need one, and get free a European breakdown and recovery package if they get into trouble.

Jim Wright,  Nissan Motor GB's managing director, said: "By making firm promises across five key areas we are tackling head on some of the questions we hear from potential customers when considering electric cars for the first time. These commitments deliver unprecedented levels of support to customers and make the LEAF a practical, desirable and affordable reality for many more motorists.

"The pledge to offer LEAF owners a free diesel or petrol Nissan for up to 14 days a year is particularly revolutionary. It means LEAF drivers can enjoy the many benefits of LEAF ownership, such as running costs of just two pence per mile, on their normal daily commute and then, when they’re going on holiday or have a longer trip to make, borrow a car that’s more appropriate to their journey."

The scheme, called the Nissan CARE-EV Leaf Customer Commitment Scheme, is aimed at helping eco-conscious motorists overcome the uncertainties they face when buying an electric car for the first time.

Nissan has sold the LEAF here since 2011, and earlier this year started building the zero-emissions hatchback at its UK plant in Sunderland.

 

The offer is available at all 205 of Nissan’s dealerships across the UK.

The new Nissan Qashqai

A NEW version of one of Nissan’s biggest sellers will go on sale across the UK in February, it has been announced.

The second generation Qashqai looks similar to the outgoing model but is longer, lower and wider, and will come with a choice of either two-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive.

UK prices and specifications for the Qashqai will be announced closer to its launch on February 1.

Find out more about the latest Qashqai at Nissan's UK website.

The Nissan Juke is the modifier's car of the moment

IT WAS as tall as a wardrobe and some might argue about as pretty, but by gum it was quick. In the right hands, the Nissan Juke R could give most supercars a run for their money.

I'm not one of the journalists lucky enough to be given a go in the GTR-engined Ferrari basher but the first time I came across it I heard it before I saw it, an almighty, industrial roar, following seconds later by an unlikely black blur rocketing past on a private test track. Offering the sort of pace Porsche customers are more familiar with in a high-riding hatchback off-roader thing is, you've got to admit, an incredible engineering achievement.

But the Juke R's real success - and I know Nissan's marketing men are probably nodding smugly at this - is that the Juke seems to have become, out of nowhere, the modifier's car of the moment. On increasingly frequent occasions, pimped-out Jukes have become visitors at car shows. The quirkily-styled SUV from Sunderland is treading the same territory the Ford Capri, the Vauxhall Nova and the Citroen Saxo used to call their own.

This is unfortunate, because not only am I yet to drive a Juke (although I've got a little experience of the bigger, duller and even more ubiquitous Qashqai), but, two years on, I'm still struggling to form an opinion on it. One moment I hate its gawky face and faux Paris-Dakar wheelarches, but then the next I'm quietly admiring the direction the stylists took, because while you'll either love it or hate it, you'll have an opinion of some sort on it. Try saying that about the Volkswagen Touran.

But - and I think it's one of the few cars I can say this about - the Juke does seem to take the Pimp My Ride stuff in its stride. Those wheelarches, for instance, are so enormous they make the standard model look a bit underwheeled, but I've seen a couple with enormous alloys and whitewall tyres that look the business. It also, because it looks like a bit bonkers to begin with, seems to suit silly spoilers and tinted windows. I've no idea why, but it's increasingly becoming one of those cult cars that encourages all sorts of automotive creativity.

Which is a good thing. Let me know if you think yours is a bit of a blank canvas...

A Datsun revival could actually work with Nissan's eco know-how

GREAT news! Datsun - a brand you thought had died back in the days of Spandau Ballet and bad leggings - is back.

I am, unfortunately, a bit too young to remember a time when you stroll into a car showroom and drive out in a gleaming new Cherry or Bluebird, but as evocative automotive names go it's not exactly one I've brought up to recall fondly. Google the Datsun Sunny and it'll become immediately obvious why I'd go for a Golf instead.

True, I'll admit the original 240Z sports coupe is deservedly called a classic car, but it on its own can't save Datsun's reputation for being a maker of crushingly dull motors.

So you're probably expecting me to head into town, get my shoes polished and prepare to give plans to revive the name a right old kicking.

But I reckon the Nissan Renault partnership, a sort of Franco-Japanese alliance aiming for automotive world domination, is on the ball and could actually pull off reviving a rubbish brand best known for building boring hatchbacks to boringly high standards.

Take, for instance, Nissan itself, which realised a couple of years ago nobody was buying saloons anymore. It pulled both the Primera and the QX out of the showrooms and instead brought you the Qashqai, a sort of off-roader meets hatchback thingymebob whose name nobody can spell or pronounce properly. A car which you, the great British public, responded to buying them in their thousands. The Nissan Qashqai is absolutely everywhere because you love it.

Nissan then decided, using all the money they'd made from Qashqai sales, to fit wheels to an SR-71 spyplane and go racing at Le Mans. While the car they've created, the Deltawing, looks like something Darth Vader would drive it shows they've got the finger on the pulse, because they're using it to prove small, lightweight cars are better than big, heavy ones. It might only have a 1.6 litre engine but - because it's only got half the drag of a normal racer - that's all it needs.

Admittedly, we're not all Stars Wars villains so you probably won't see the Deltawing for sale any time soon, but what Nissan might be offering you instead by reviving Datsun is the sort of reliability and ruggedness Qashqai buyers love, but with added eco-friendliness and a lower price.

A Deltawing-inspired Datsun with racing-inspired aerodynamics, eco-friendly yet unexpectedly exciting engines, low weight and - crucially - an even lower price? That's a Sunny successor even I'd go for...

If Darth Vader drove a car...

THE same people who brought you the Micra and the Almera have just fitted wheels to an SR-71 spyplane.

This, believe it or not, is not the next Batmobile, but a racing car which Nissan is going to campaign at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours. The DeltaWing, the company reckons, will weigh half as much as a normal racer and have half the drag. And, presumably, twice the wow factor.

Andy Palmer, executive vice president of Nissan, said:

“As motor racing rulebooks have become tighter over time, racing cars look more and more similar and the technology used has had less and less relevance to road car development. Nissan DeltaWing aims to change that and we were an obvious choice to become part of the project.

“But this is just the start of our involvement. Nissan DeltaWing embodies a vast number of highly-innovative ideas that we can learn from. At the same time, our engineering resources and commitment to fuel efficiency leadership via our PureDrive strategy will help develop DeltaWing into a testbed of innovation for Nissan.”


Admittedly, it's not a classified entrant - so technically, it can't win the race anyway - and it's only got a 1.6 litre engine, but because they've bolted an enormous turbocharger it still manages to pump out an impressive 300bhp. Not that any of that matters, because while it's purportedly acting as a technological testbed the thing absolutely everyone will be talking about is that body.

As a sort of cross between an SR-71 spyplane, a Le Mans racer and something out of the Star Wars films I think it looks fabulous.

You probably disagree. Let me know...