Nissan Americas says it is well positioned to weather the problems caused by the Japanese earthquake and the ensuing tsunami and might be in a position to supply engines to Japan.

Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have re-opened plants in Japan as the country and deals with nuclear disaster risks and regular aftershocks but automotive giants Toyota and Honda have announced that their plants will remain closed until at least this weekend.

Since the earthquake hit Japan on March 11th, the country has been battling strong after-shocks, a tsunami and nuclear power risks forcing Japanese automakers to cease production but starting today, Japan’s largest car companies attempt to get back into the swing of things.

Since the massive earthquake and following tsunami hammered Japan, even the American automakers may face shortages throughout their supply chain but the Japanese automakers have obviously been hit the hardest by Mother Nature over the past week.

While the sales figures aren’t setting the world on fire, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is currently winning the war for the top electric car in the US market but with deliveries slowed by lagging production, GM is planning to add a second shift for Volt production starting early in 2012.

Sales numbers are in for February 2011 and for the second month in the year of the electric car, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt has handily outsold the 2011 Nissan Leaf by a margin of over 4 to 1.

The big news from the Nissan camp as the 2011 Geneva Motor Show opens is the grand debut of the new Esflow Concept – a cutting edge electric supercar utilizing similar powertrain technology to that found in the popular Nissan Leaf production vehicle.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has issued their 8th annual “Greenest” cars list and amazingly, the rapidly-selling 2011 Chevrolet Volt is at the bottom of their list but based on their own explanation of how they arrive at their results makes the list seems incredibly skewed and disappointingly uneducated.

Nissan will introduce the ESFLOW concept, an electric sports car, at the Geneva Auto Show, choosing to skip this week's Chicago Auto Show.

The 10 semi-finalists for the World Car of the Year and six semi-finalists for World Green Car of the Year have been announced.

Sales numbers from around the industry for January 2011 are trickling in as the year of the electric car begins and in the first month, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt outsold the 2011 Nissan Leaf by a ratio of over 3.5 to 1.

Mazda has announced that they will be producing a version of their popular Mazda5 to be rebadged and sold as a Nissan starting in May but the two automakers only intend to sell this Mazda-built Nissan compact minivan in Japan.

Thanks to a strong presence in China, Nissan has passed Honda in total global sales.

A study by the IBM Institute for Business Value demonstrates that electric vehicle manufacturers may not understand why consumers want them, how much they’re willing to pay for the vehicles, and recharging.