How to celebrate the sales milestone of a true originator when it comes to mainstream electric vehicle success?
Why, make an uglier, heavier and less-aerodynamic version of the same thing, of course.
That’s what Nissan has chosen to do to celebrate the 100,000th Leaf EV sold in the domestic Japanese market. It has created a drop-top version of its perennial plug-in called, unimaginatively, the Leaf Open Car.
Nissan wants to sell a million electric vehicles each year by 2022.
So far it has taken it eight years to sell 300,000, so there’s a fair way to go before that particular goal is achieved. But the Leaf has long been a popular buy for EV fiends; especially in markets like our own where second-hand examples give drivers the opportunity to experience their own electric dream for little outlay.
Nissan has decreed it will add to its EV portfolio with eight new models (including plug-in versions of existing nameplates) by 2021.
Don’t forget also that Nissan’s luxury- offshoot, Infiniti, will be adding pure electric models to its line-up within the next five years.
So, a million electrified units sold each year might not prove as outrageously ambitious as it looks on paper.
We should point out that a soft-top Nissan Leaf isn’t one of those eight new models; the car pictured is purely for publicity purposes. Thank goodness.
McLaren? On a winning streak
McLaren has gone from a shed-builder to a superstar of supercar production in less than a decade.
The iconic company is celebrating the manufacture of its 15,000th car at the flashy McLaren Production Centre in Woking, Surrey. And if it’s rapid acceleration you’re after (outside of the cars themselves), then consider that the 15,000th car has left the production line less than 18 months after the 10,000th car was given a final buff and sent out the door.
McLaren is on a winning streak; production had to double to meet rising global demand, meaning that the technicians working inside the bright white hospital-like environs of the McLaren production hall now have to output 20 cars per day, rather than 10.
As a result, McLaren had a record year for sales during 2017, with 3340 cars sold in more than 30 world markets.
The McLaren 570S Spider from the brand’s Sports Series line-up, and the McLaren 720S from the Super Series made up the bulk of sales.
The McLaren Senna hypercar — of which only 500 will be produced — is due to start production soon.
All this mass-manufacturing. What would Bruce have said?
Well, he probably would have thought it was all pretty bloody good.
The Honda Civic Type R pick-up truck is no joke
This’ll be good for the garden centre, as evidenced by two lawn mowers stowed in the tray in some of the publicity shots ...
What is it? Why it’s a Honda Civic Type R pick-up truck, of course. And yes, the lawn mowers are Hondas too, natch.
Okay, what on earth is going on here? It’s a bit late for April Fool joking, and rather than some cheeky computer render, the Type R ute is the real deal.
It was created by a team of engineers (possibly with not enough actual work to do) at Honda’s UK manufacturing facility in Swindon.
The pick-up — codenamed Project P — was built to celebrate a calendar year since the latest iteration of Honda’s stonking hot hatch was released.
While the back seats have been reimagined as a treadplate-covered tub, the car’s massive aero wing miraculously remains in-situ (would it be a Civic Type R without one?), albeit as a removable item in case motorbikes or hay bales need to be loaded into the rear.
Knowing a good thing when it has been built, the Project P skunkworks team left the Type R’s engine alone, meaning this farm hack-slash-garden centre runabout still boasts a 2.0-litre four-cylinder VTEC turbo under the bonnet, producing 228kW peak power and 400Nm maximum torque, with a 0-100km/h sprint time of less than 6s. Handy when you’ve accidentally booked in two lawn mowing clients on the same morning ...
Now the Honda UK team responsible for this cut-down creation want to take it to the Nurburgring in Germany and attempt a lap record for the fastest front-wheel drive ute. Which, we’re picking, isn’t a category that currently exists anywhere.