nissan

The Japanese automaker has extended its halt on vehicle production at its plants in Japan through March 22, as the country continues to reel from the devastation of last week's massive 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

Toyota, Nissan and Honda, among other companies, have shut down plants temporarily in Japan in the wake of Friday's earthquake and tsunami. While many of their factories were undamaged, crippled nuclear plants are causing power shortages, and there has been damage to parts makers and transportation infrastructure.

It was a good month for auto sales despite inclement weather across much of the country and surging oil prices. Cars sold near an annual pace of 13 million vehicles. That would make February the best on record since the "cash for clunkers" rebate program in 2009.

Major automakers are set to release February sales figures on Tuesday, and analysts expect the reports will show sales improved 20% compared to a year ago. Consumers continued to warm to the slowly improving economy -- so far, despite surging oil prices.

Is the Nissan Leaf or any of the other battery cars now hitting the market "zero emission"? No, actually not, though it may seem like a no-brainer-if a car doesn't have a tailpipe, it doesn't have any emissions, right? In reality, electric cars produce emissions because they plug into a grid...

In the State of the Union address in January, President Barack Obama set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. Now he's proposed $7,500 rebates, instead of tax credits, to reach that goal. Will that be enough to make it doable?

Asian markets rose today with investors piling into oil companies as the price of oil passed the $100 a barrel mark. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index inched up 0.2%, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.3%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged up 0.4%.

A slowly brightening economy combined with low financing rates and generally stable fuel prices have put consumers in a buying mood. New models, particularly from Ford and GM, are also helping to keep U.S. auto sales on a positive trajectory as 2011 starts.

Continuing unrest in Egypt sent shock waves through stock markets as far away as Japan, where the Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also dropped 0.7%. In China the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.4%.

In Asia Thursday the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.5% to 2,749 and the Hang Seng Index fell 0.3% to 23,780. In Japan the Nikkei 225 Index advanced 0.7% to end the day at 10,479.