Honda hasn’t been profitable in Europe since 2007, and would like to break the two-percent market-share barrier in the EU and Russia. To do that, it is looking at a rival to Nissan’s Qashqai. Nissan’s compact CUV alone outsold the entire Honda lineup in Europe in the first nine months of this year, and by no small margin: 153,079 to 105,918.

Those kinds of numbers have Honda justifiably envious of Nissan’s little crossover, as apparently offering theCR-V in Europe hasn’t generated the same sort of consumer response. Even so Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, will say nothing more than that “we are thinking about doing something like that” – a decision could still be a ways off, to say nothing of an actual production vehicle.

The Nissan Juke R might be one of the company’s most impressive engineering efforts in recent memory, but the skunkworks team behind it has apparently ruffled more than a few feathers with Nissan execs in Japan.

The UK team behind the Juke R apparently didn’t seek approval from Nissan’s higher-ups before beginning the build, and the unholy GT-R/Juke hybrid concept was apparently born in secret before the unending teasers – see the latest one after the jump – began making their way online.

According to sources close to the company, the release was a complete surprise to many at the automaker and several Nissan executives at the company’s headquarters were put-off by the idea that a group of rag-tag engineers in the UK would take their ultimate driving machine – the flagship for everything Nissan is capable of – and toss it into an inexpensive compact crossover.

It was just a few months ago that Nissan announced it had sold over 10,000 all-electric Leaf electric cars around the world. Speaking before the start of the Tokyo Motor Show today, company officials confirmed to Autoblog that the automaker has sold over 20,000 Leafs since the electric car went on sale in December of 2010.

Of that total, over 60 percent of the roughly 9,000 Leafs sold in the U.S. so far this year (we’ll get specific numbers later this week) have found homes in California. Furthermore, Nissan is on track to eclipse 10,000 Leafs sold in the U.S. by the end of the year – perfectly in line with what the automaker expected.

We’ve just learned that Nissan’s Nismo performance arm has been busy playing with the Juke, and the result is the Juke Nismo Concept that will debut later this week at the Tokyo Motor Show. While not nearly as wild as the GT-R-powered Juke-R that Nissan is also working on, the Juke Nismo Concept nonetheless represents something you might actually be able to park in your garage one day.

Changes to the standard Juke range from the Nismo-developed aero kit that replaces the front and rear lower bumpers, fenders and side sills to the inside of the sport hatchback where all of the elements that a driver comes in contact with – steering wheel, shifter, pedals, etc. – have been redesigned. Being a Nismo product, many functional changes were made as well, which include lowering the suspension on stiffer springs, adding larger 19-inch alloy wheels and tweaking the direct-injected 1.6-liter engine for an unmentioned amount of more power.

We’ll seek out Nissan’s booth on Wednesday for live pics of the Juke Nismo Concept, as well as the rest of the Japanese automaker’s Tokyo Motor Show lineup.

The Nissan Cube is… different. There aren’t many vehicles that pack the length of a sub-compact, the height of a crossover and the sex appeal of a postal truck. There is no question that Nissan was thinking out of the box with this boxy ride, but the model has never really caught on in the States. In 2009, Nissan sold 21,000 units, followed by 23,000 units in 2010. This year, however, sales have dipped to just 13,850 units through 10 months, a tepid 198 units having been sold in October.

But while the Cube isn’t selling well, AutoWeek reports that Nissan isn’t giving up on it just yet. Nissan North America sales boss Brian Carolin told the magazine at the Los Angeles Auto Show that the Cube “has found its place in the market.” Carolin added that demand for the Cube was strong when gas prices spiked, and that at that point, the automaker was “struggling to get a supply of it.”

Part of the Cube’s sales decline could be attributed to parts shortages as a result of the Japan earthquake back in March, but that doesn’t seem to explain its very weak October sales numbers. Even with obviously slow sales, Carolin sounds bullish on the Cube, but we’re betting that Nissan will struggle to keep the Cube in the U.S. lineup if sales continue to dip, and we haven’t heard a peep about a next-generation model.