Nissan Motor Corp

The future -- or at least a future -- may finally be in sight for the electric car. Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn announced plans at the L.A. Auto Show on Wednesday to begin selling a competitively priced electric car in Oregon in 2010. The vehicle would go "mass market" by 2012, Ghosn vowed. After years of false starts, the bold pronouncement was the clearest sign yet that electric cars may soon go beyond golf carts and $100,000 eco-status symbols.

Nissan, Expecting a Loss, to Cut Work Force: Nissan Motor Corp. announced plans to cut its work force by 4,000 over the next three years and said it expects to lose $161 million this fiscal year. Nissan, Japan's second-largest car maker, said the drop in its sales this year in Japan and abroad was more severe than projected. The job cuts will be made through attrition, limits on new hiring and transfers of workers to subsidiaries and affiliated companies, the company said.

In tough times, Nissan Motor Co. is hoping less is more. On Friday, the Japanese carmaker said it would begin selling a cut-rate version of its Versa sedan in the U.S. for $9,990 -- more than $1,000 less than the cheapest new car currently sold in America. The frills-free Versa -- which is made in Mexico and will be available starting Nov. 18 -- will come without power windows or air conditioning and will be the only new car available in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

Nissan Recalls 1.1 Million Cars: The recall by Japane's No. 2 auto maker is to repair defective condensers and seat belt devices, the Transport Ministry said. The 1.1 million Nissan Motor Corp. vehicles involved include 70,000 exported to the United States. Takao Onoda, a ministry official, said the recall is Japan's largest. Previously, the biggest recall was 770,000 vehicles by Toyota Motor Corp. in 1970. Nissan had reported six cases of fires from the defective equipment so far in Japan.

An Orange County couple have dropped a novel lawsuit in which they claimed that Nissan Motor Corp. planted an automotive "spy" in their home to study the habits of middle-class Americans, attorneys said. Stephen and Maritza French of Costa Mesa dismissed their lawsuit on July 26 because they did not want to endure the stress of pursuing the litigation, said their lawyer, Nancy Kaufman.

In tough times, Nissan Motor Co. is hoping less is more. On Friday, the Japanese carmaker said it would begin selling a cut-rate version of its Versa sedan in the U.S. for $9,990 -- more than $1,000 less than the cheapest new car currently sold in America. The frills-free Versa -- which is made in Mexico and will be available starting Nov. 18 -- will come without power windows or air conditioning and will be the only new car available in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

* Gardena-based Nissan Motor Corp. USA, stepping up the auto industry price wars, said it is cutting prices 5% on its 1999 Frontier pickup trucks and Sentra cars. The U.S. unit of Japan's Nissan Motor Co. said the manufacturer's suggested retail price on the average Frontier will be down about $830, or 5.1%, from 1998. The price of the average-equipped Sentra will be down $796, or 5%.

Nissan Motor Co. became the latest major Japanese automaker to report booming earnings for the just-ended fiscal year -- and forecast a plunge in profit for the current year, blaming a rising yen and soaring material costs. "There is no way we can overcome these head winds," Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday at Nissan's Tokyo headquarters. Nissan, Japan's third-biggest automaker, expects profit for the fiscal year through March to plunge 30% to 340 billion yen ($3.3 billion)

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday that it would make a new small car designed by Chrysler and that Chrysler would make a full-size pickup truck designed by Nissan. The agreement is part of a growing relationship between Chrysler and the No. 3 Japanese automaker as they try to adapt to markets buffeted by the economic slowdown and rising gasoline prices. Both products will be sold in North America, and the new Chrysler small car will also be sold in Europe and other global markets starting in 2010.

Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, will supply cars for Chrysler to sell in South America and expand the U.S. carmaker's presence outside its home market. The agreement calls for Tokyo-based Nissan to provide Mexican-built versions of the Versa compact car starting in 2009, the companies said in a joint statement Friday. Financial terms and the number of vehicles weren't disclosed.

Nissan Motor Co. is recalling 686,500 Altima and Sentra passenger cars to fix problems with a sensor that could lead to engine stalling. The Japanese automaker said in a Nov. 16 letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the recall affected Altima and Sentra vehicles from the 2002 and 2005-06 model years equipped with a 2.5- liter engine.

Nissan reported a 27% decline in profit for its fiscal second quarter on one-time expenses and higher taxes. From July to September, profit totaled 120.1 billion yen ($1.05 billion), down from 164 billion yen the previous year. Sales surged 13% to 2.618 trillion yen ($22.9 billion) as sales grew in the U.S., Europe, Russia and China. Nissan sold 941,000 vehicles worldwide, up 6.6% compared with a year earlier.

Nissan USA found itself in the middle of a media firestorm this week when photos of its much-anticipated 2009 Nissan GT-R (known as the Skyline GT-R in Japan) found their way onto the Internet. It seems that an image of the cover art for the December issue of Motor Trend was inadvertently leaked -- by the magazine's public relations firm. The firm "was trying to promote a headline touting our SUV of the Year in December and placed the entire cover art out on the wire," said Angus MacKenzie, the magazine's editor.

Nissan Recalls Vans: Nissan Motor Corp. recalled about 33,000 1987-1990 model Nissan Vans because of a potential power steering problem which could result in an engine fire. The company said it was aware of one slight injury stemming from the problem. The company said a power steering hose may deteriorate because of engine heat. Fluid then could leak onto the exhaust manifold, causing a fire. Nissan said it would notify owners and perform repairs for free.

Infiniti is taking a new angle on rear-view cameras. Nissan Motor Co.'s luxury nameplate is offering a new software-assisted camera system that provides drivers with a 360-degree overhead perspective of their car -- sort of a bird's-eye view for parallel parking. The "around view monitor" will be an option on the 2008 Infiniti EX35, a new small sport utility vehicle. "It's a high-tech parking aid that goes well beyond reverse-camera technology," said Robert Yakushi, Nissan North America Inc.'

The shady used-car salesman's trick is to roll back the odometer to make a car appear newer. Honda Motor Co.'s odometers moved faster for the opposite effect. How's that? "I never noticed anything was amiss," said Agoura Hills resident Dick Hansen, who bought a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid last year and thought he had put 18,000 miles on it -- but may have driven only 17,600.