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Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee to start Leaf production by late 2012
No worries Nissan EV fans, more Leaves are on the way -- that's according to Bill Kreuger, the head honcho of Nissan's manufacturing and supply chain division. Kreuger tells Automotive News, the catastrophic earthquake in Japan that shut down several large plants was just a small speedbump in the release of the flagship electric vehicle. Nissan North America has been preparing a 1.6 billion dollar production complex in Smyrna, Tennessee, to begin rolling out EVs in the masses by late 2012. The plan is to have the plant assemble about 200,000 battery modules and as many as 150,000 Leafs each year, and we're guessing it'll have quite an easy go finding names for each and every one.
Aston Martin Experience could be the ultimate iPhone accessory, but you're gonna want the car
You probably wouldn't pay $6 for an iPhone app that lets you browse through car models and pump stereo exhaust sounds directly to your drums. But a $6 Aston Martin Experience app that also displays speed and Gs as you film your drive from behind the wheel of a 2011 Rapide? We might be in love. The British automaker's latest app can do all of the above, and also includes a list of "top roads" -- most of which are in Europe. Our friends at Autoblog paired the app with a loaner Rapide (and we thought playing with cell phones was cool), driving up California's Aston-approved Pacific Coast Highway. The reviewers may have spent more time focusing on the car than the app, but when you're driving a $200,000, 477 horsepower aluminum beast for the first time, the iPhone easily becomes an afterthought. Aston claims that the Experience can be had with any other car, but if you're looking to get the experience, be prepared to spend a little more than six bucks.
California's zero-emissions rebate program ironically runs out of green
Californians will have to look elsewhere to start receiving cash back for buying eco-friendly vehicles, as the California Air Resources Board has just announced that its ever popular rebate program is no more for the time being. CARB, as the board also goes by, launched its Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) in March of 2010 with initial funding of over $11 million to go around -- but we knew it wouldn't last. According to the CVRP website, the program has issued a little over $7 million worth of rebates thus far, with the rest pending or reserved for the already existing EV-owners. The board hopes to bring the program back within the next fiscal year by charging it up with $17 million worth of rebates. It'll create more opportunities to get some of these rebates, while simultaneously extending the duration of the CVRP by decreasing the maximum amount to $2,500 (about half of the previous maximum). If you're doing your math correctly, that equates to more than 6,000 total rebates that'll be up for grabs -- opposed to the 1,400 first-rounders who were awarded the rebates already. With luck and some economical upturns, Californian volt-heads can cruise into 2012 with their non-petrol-deficient wallets a little bit fuller.
Autoblog's new app to help you obsess about the auto industry
Today, Autoblog finally released its iPhone app, bringing together three of the car site's main components (and a new debut) into a central location. The free app provides up-to-the-minute auto industry news from Autoblog, fuel-efficient car news from AutoblogGreen, tech-related vehicle news from Translogic and, for the first time on a mobile device, new car buying data through the "Aol. Best Deals" service. Try using it the next time you visit a dealership. As the editor-in-chief of AutoblogGreen (yes, I do more than just review board game apps on TUAW, and TUAW and Autoblog are both AOL properties), I can't objectively review this app. Instead, I'll run down the list of features and, since it's free, interested readers can check out the app themselves and share reviews in the comments below. The highlight here is, of course, having quick and easy access to Autoblog news in a dedicated app. Sure, the iPhone has long been able to access the regular and mobile versions of these sites, but the app formats them in an easy-to-read manner that also offers one-touch access to the sites' picture galleries and videos. Of course, like most good blogs, part of the experience is participating, and the app offers a really easy way to send in a tip. If you see something great while you're out and about, you can also send Autoblog a picture through the app. Another nifty feature? You can save blog posts to the app for offline reading, kind of like a built-in Instapaper. It's also possible to stream any of the Autoblog podcasts through the app, so if you don't want to fill up your iPhone with downloaded files, now you don't have to. There are some capabilities from the regular sites missing from the app: not all categories are represented in the "Topics" tab, for example. More important, you can't comment on posts (yet). Also, the app is formatted for the iPhone, and so it displays at 2x on the iPad. That means I wouldn't bother with this app on the iPad; instead I'll keep using Mobile Safari to get my auto industry news. Sounds good? Check out the free app yourself here.
Think City's EVs get priced... sort of
Apparently a $34,000 price tag isn't exclusive enough for you to nab one of the first 100 Think City electric vehicles -- fancy that! The aforementioned sticker is meant only for normal retail versions of the green-machine, a version that just so happens to not truly exist in any meaningful form. To be one of those lucky 100 bringing home the first available Think City vehicles, you'll have to cough up a decidedly heftier chunk of change -- $41,695 to be exact. In addition to these inaugural models, Think City is adding another set of prices for lucky folks living in Indiana (the first state to acquire these cars), where the normal production electric eco-transports are apparently selling for just $30,050. 'Course, all this scrutiny over MSRPs is apt to be for naught when gas creeps up to six bucks a gallon, but hey, that would never happen in our lifetime. Right?
Mercedes F-Cell World Drive gets off to an inauspicious start
Circling the globe on hydrogen power sounds like a bit of a challenge, what with the lack H2 pumps and all, but Mercedes-Benz set off to show that it could do just that -- with the help of a mobile filling station, natürlich. It's the F-Cell World Drive, and unfortunately, things got off to something of a bad start with two cars running out of fuel on the very first leg of the journey, one with Autoblog's Michael Harley at the wheel, no less. This first leg apparently began with a trip down an unrestricted bit of the Autobahn and, well, it seems the drivers of the cars decided to see what the little green B-Class F-Cells could do. The answer is 110mph, and of course moving along at this rate of speed did little for their range. The two cars came up 20km short of their first planned refueling stop, heavy right feet resulting in consumption of 1.5Kg of hydrogen per 100km distance -- roughly equivalent of 45mpg and way less than the 71mpg equivalent the cars usually manage. We're told day two, when drivers kept the speed to around 70mph, progressed much more smoothly, with both cars covering their expected legs without issue.
Two auto performance meters for iPhone
I've seen a lot of fun accelerometer uses in the App Store so far, but this is probably the coolest -- Dynolicious will actually use your iPhone's accelerometer to determine all kinds of stuff about how awesome your '92 Subaru is, from 0-60 and 1/4 mile time up to lateral Gs and horsepower. Just throw your iPhone somewhere secure in the car, hit go, and Dynolicious will track all that hardware stuff for you (even over multiple runs). Very awesome -- it's in the App Store right now for $12.99, which is pricey, until you see what an actual GTech meter will set you back.What? Gas is super expensive right now, and you want it even cheaper? Wish granted: our friends at Autoblog have also dug up an app called g-tac, which will track your times and even graph them out for you. Unfortunately, g-tac won't do the cool accelerometer stuff, measuring out your lateral gs and horsepower for you, but you know the old saying: you can have things fast, good, or cheap, and you only get to pick two.
Blu-ray on the go?
Your next automobile purchase may have an option for not just the DVD players available in so many cars today, but a Blu-ray player. That's what Panasonic had to say to Technoride, they expect to be able to sell a ruggedized player with the capability to read Blu-ray discs in the next year. While they won't be adding 1080p screen resolution to a 7-inch display, this way people can bring along their new Blu-ray discs (since there won't be any Blu-ray/DVD hybrid discs) on trips without buying additional DVD copies, or they can burn large amounts of SD content onto a single Blu-ray disc. All the same, 2007 might be the year when that Escalade on 22-inch rims in front of you sports a Blu-ray sticker on the bumper.[Via Autoblog]
