lne937s
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2010
- Messages
- 250
As the Paris show is about to start, I thought I would open a new topic...
View Nissan's Paris Motor Show press conference live here: http://nissan.vividas.com/parismotorshow
Ghosn interview from Le Monde (google translation)
http://www.lemonde.fr/mondial-de-l-automobile/article/2010/09/29/carlos-ghosn-je-suis-sur-que-la-voiture-electrique-sera-un-succes_1417626_1417314.html
On the occasion of the Paris Motor Show to be held from October 2 to 17, Porte de Versailles in Paris, Carlos Ghosn, 56, CEO of Renault and Nissan, discusses the crisis, its ambitions and book lifts the veil preview on the strategic plan for submission in February 2011.
You will have four electric vehicles at the Paris motor. You're one of the few bosses, at least one of the first to believe in this market. Do you think this innovation will revolutionize the auto industry?
Manufacturers who will develop this niche will not dominate the overnight market. But I think the electric vehicle is an inevitable direction, and along this path will be many consequences. Starting with the image. Today when we think "hybrid car", you think "Toyota". Tomorrow, when we think "electric car" we think "Renault Nissan."
We took the gamble of electric vehicle four years ago. We will invest 4 billion euros. I still think he will represent 10% of the market in 2020. But if oil prices blazed again, if new disasters occur, then this percentage could be even higher.
Nissan has just launched its first electric model in Japan and the United States, the Leaf. How to sell it?
We stopped taking orders for all production 2011 - more than 20,000 cars - was already sold. We will reopen the backlog when we are able to meet demand. In France, the public will be able to order the first electric Renault at Paris Motor Show. I'm sure it will be a success. In fact, my concern is not whether the car will sell but how we manage customer expectations.
Two years ago, the auto industry plunged into the worst crisis in its history. Where are we today?
Clearly, the global crisis is behind us. On Europe, I am somewhat less pessimistic than in the second half earlier this year. At the time, were expected to fall much more important, around 10%. The market will be rather - 7%.
And specifically for Renault and Nissan?
2010 will be a record year for Renault and Nissan. In total, our alliance will sell more than 7 million vehicles.
During this crisis, China has become the largest market in the world. Renault How long can he stay away from this market?
We will go one day in China with Renault. But not in two or three years ahead. To get there, we must put a lot of money. For now, we have a well-filled travelogue: Russia, India, Brazil, electric vehicle, Dacia ... I do not want it disperses. There will be room for everyone in China, provided they arrive at the right time with the right resources rather than rush and fail. For now, this is our alliance with Nissan. Today is the first Asian brand in China. We're going to sell 950,000 cars in 2010 against only 10,000 a decade ago. It is now the largest market for Nissan and more profitable.
In the medium term, the electric vehicle can be a gateway to China for Renault?
Yes of course. At the strategic level, everything is ready. This can go very fast.
Unlike U.S. manufacturers, the Europeans have not attacked their industrial overcapacity. Will it sooner or later, close plants?
Not necessarily. Even if the entire European automobile industry will continue to see a decline in output of its factories, it does not seem realistic to close the sites. States' concerns in relation to employment are legitimate. Economic decisions of manufacturers must be tempered by the yardstick of social obligations.
For ten years, sales of Renault capped at 2.4 to 2.5 million cars. Are you not facing a growth problem when many of your competitors have changed size?
I want to remind that we too have changed in size thanks to an alliance with Nissan. Renault-Nissan is the third largest in the world and has a turnover of 130 billion dollars (95.4 billion euros). In carrying out this alliance, Renault has mobilized considerable resources, which were not solely devoted to its own growth. I recognize that it was insufficient. It was the objective of our strategic plan, Renault Commitment 2009. Unfortunately we chose the worst year of the century to assess the performance of the company!
You'll present in February 2011 a new strategic plan. Will you set ambitious growth targets in the previous one?
The objectives are certainly more realistic than the previous one. For even if the crisis had not intervened, we would have kept our promises in terms of improved quality and in terms of profitability, but we would have missed the target sales volume. When you make a plan, we must make a realistic assessment to be able to learn from them. So in Iran, we were too optimistic and we have underestimated the difficulties. The Laguna, we were not at the rendezvous. Finally we had some problems on the end of life of the previous version of the Megane we had not anticipated. Besides this, there were pleasant surprises as sales in Brazil, the global success of the Logan or the new Megane, but this did not compensate.
What will the other strands of this strategic plan?
This plan will not be a surprise in the sense that its foundations are already present today in our strategy. There will be an important component of the electric car and cars with low CO2 emissions, and a chapter on international with an acceleration of our development in Brazil, Russia and the Middle East. However, the timing of the new plan will be different. The first covered the period 2006-2009, the idea this time is to give more opportunities for the company over a longer period so that employees are projected beyond the short term targets.
You always reminded that the Renault-Nissan was open to another partner. General Motors (GM) is there still a perfect partner?
I still think there is much to do with GM, there are many synergies. But an attractive company is a company motivated. What is important in an alliance is when there is a mutual appetite. When, during the crisis, the advisor of U.S. President Barack Obama on the car, Steve Rattner, wanted to meet me, I have proposed to look again if we could do things with GM. He replied that for the moment was too complicated. What interested him was to offer me to lead GM. I told him it was impossible to leave my current responsibilities in turmoil, I felt that it was not ethical at all. He understood very well. Now I am open to a merger with GM. If they are interested, they will come to us. But I repeat again: Renault-Nissan, this is an opportunity but not an obligation, we have no problem. One example: when we take the total budget for research and development of Renault, Nissan and Daimler, the strike force is the technological world first.
Where are you about your merger with Daimler?
We have quite a few surprises. For example we thought that their production platforms were far more expensive than they are in reality. Then we learned a lot about brand management. We realized that discipline, that helps make a strong brand. For example, Renault-Nissan is a hundred times more website in the world that Daimler. If they work well is that it should be possible for us too. For their part, they were surprised by the reliability of our cars.
Daimler is one of the champions of the highest quality. Where is Renault after the stop of the Vel Satis and the aging space?
We will return to this market segment
It has been ten years since the French brands hold that speech and you still see nothing coming ...
We'll come back another way. For example, a new space will happen. We can not be without a global manufacturer of high quality.
It may still be in his range and lose money ...
Paradoxically, we gain a lot of money on small cars and you lose the fat, while for other manufacturers is the opposite. In fact we manage what is difficult and we miss what is the easiest. Nissan makes a lot of money on the high end can help us change things. And then there's redemption from Samsung in South Korea, which brings us valuable experience in the medium and high end. The World Cup will be an opportunity to show our ambitions.
View Nissan's Paris Motor Show press conference live here: http://nissan.vividas.com/parismotorshow
Ghosn interview from Le Monde (google translation)
http://www.lemonde.fr/mondial-de-l-automobile/article/2010/09/29/carlos-ghosn-je-suis-sur-que-la-voiture-electrique-sera-un-succes_1417626_1417314.html
On the occasion of the Paris Motor Show to be held from October 2 to 17, Porte de Versailles in Paris, Carlos Ghosn, 56, CEO of Renault and Nissan, discusses the crisis, its ambitions and book lifts the veil preview on the strategic plan for submission in February 2011.
You will have four electric vehicles at the Paris motor. You're one of the few bosses, at least one of the first to believe in this market. Do you think this innovation will revolutionize the auto industry?
Manufacturers who will develop this niche will not dominate the overnight market. But I think the electric vehicle is an inevitable direction, and along this path will be many consequences. Starting with the image. Today when we think "hybrid car", you think "Toyota". Tomorrow, when we think "electric car" we think "Renault Nissan."
We took the gamble of electric vehicle four years ago. We will invest 4 billion euros. I still think he will represent 10% of the market in 2020. But if oil prices blazed again, if new disasters occur, then this percentage could be even higher.
Nissan has just launched its first electric model in Japan and the United States, the Leaf. How to sell it?
We stopped taking orders for all production 2011 - more than 20,000 cars - was already sold. We will reopen the backlog when we are able to meet demand. In France, the public will be able to order the first electric Renault at Paris Motor Show. I'm sure it will be a success. In fact, my concern is not whether the car will sell but how we manage customer expectations.
Two years ago, the auto industry plunged into the worst crisis in its history. Where are we today?
Clearly, the global crisis is behind us. On Europe, I am somewhat less pessimistic than in the second half earlier this year. At the time, were expected to fall much more important, around 10%. The market will be rather - 7%.
And specifically for Renault and Nissan?
2010 will be a record year for Renault and Nissan. In total, our alliance will sell more than 7 million vehicles.
During this crisis, China has become the largest market in the world. Renault How long can he stay away from this market?
We will go one day in China with Renault. But not in two or three years ahead. To get there, we must put a lot of money. For now, we have a well-filled travelogue: Russia, India, Brazil, electric vehicle, Dacia ... I do not want it disperses. There will be room for everyone in China, provided they arrive at the right time with the right resources rather than rush and fail. For now, this is our alliance with Nissan. Today is the first Asian brand in China. We're going to sell 950,000 cars in 2010 against only 10,000 a decade ago. It is now the largest market for Nissan and more profitable.
In the medium term, the electric vehicle can be a gateway to China for Renault?
Yes of course. At the strategic level, everything is ready. This can go very fast.
Unlike U.S. manufacturers, the Europeans have not attacked their industrial overcapacity. Will it sooner or later, close plants?
Not necessarily. Even if the entire European automobile industry will continue to see a decline in output of its factories, it does not seem realistic to close the sites. States' concerns in relation to employment are legitimate. Economic decisions of manufacturers must be tempered by the yardstick of social obligations.
For ten years, sales of Renault capped at 2.4 to 2.5 million cars. Are you not facing a growth problem when many of your competitors have changed size?
I want to remind that we too have changed in size thanks to an alliance with Nissan. Renault-Nissan is the third largest in the world and has a turnover of 130 billion dollars (95.4 billion euros). In carrying out this alliance, Renault has mobilized considerable resources, which were not solely devoted to its own growth. I recognize that it was insufficient. It was the objective of our strategic plan, Renault Commitment 2009. Unfortunately we chose the worst year of the century to assess the performance of the company!
You'll present in February 2011 a new strategic plan. Will you set ambitious growth targets in the previous one?
The objectives are certainly more realistic than the previous one. For even if the crisis had not intervened, we would have kept our promises in terms of improved quality and in terms of profitability, but we would have missed the target sales volume. When you make a plan, we must make a realistic assessment to be able to learn from them. So in Iran, we were too optimistic and we have underestimated the difficulties. The Laguna, we were not at the rendezvous. Finally we had some problems on the end of life of the previous version of the Megane we had not anticipated. Besides this, there were pleasant surprises as sales in Brazil, the global success of the Logan or the new Megane, but this did not compensate.
What will the other strands of this strategic plan?
This plan will not be a surprise in the sense that its foundations are already present today in our strategy. There will be an important component of the electric car and cars with low CO2 emissions, and a chapter on international with an acceleration of our development in Brazil, Russia and the Middle East. However, the timing of the new plan will be different. The first covered the period 2006-2009, the idea this time is to give more opportunities for the company over a longer period so that employees are projected beyond the short term targets.
You always reminded that the Renault-Nissan was open to another partner. General Motors (GM) is there still a perfect partner?
I still think there is much to do with GM, there are many synergies. But an attractive company is a company motivated. What is important in an alliance is when there is a mutual appetite. When, during the crisis, the advisor of U.S. President Barack Obama on the car, Steve Rattner, wanted to meet me, I have proposed to look again if we could do things with GM. He replied that for the moment was too complicated. What interested him was to offer me to lead GM. I told him it was impossible to leave my current responsibilities in turmoil, I felt that it was not ethical at all. He understood very well. Now I am open to a merger with GM. If they are interested, they will come to us. But I repeat again: Renault-Nissan, this is an opportunity but not an obligation, we have no problem. One example: when we take the total budget for research and development of Renault, Nissan and Daimler, the strike force is the technological world first.
Where are you about your merger with Daimler?
We have quite a few surprises. For example we thought that their production platforms were far more expensive than they are in reality. Then we learned a lot about brand management. We realized that discipline, that helps make a strong brand. For example, Renault-Nissan is a hundred times more website in the world that Daimler. If they work well is that it should be possible for us too. For their part, they were surprised by the reliability of our cars.
Daimler is one of the champions of the highest quality. Where is Renault after the stop of the Vel Satis and the aging space?
We will return to this market segment
It has been ten years since the French brands hold that speech and you still see nothing coming ...
We'll come back another way. For example, a new space will happen. We can not be without a global manufacturer of high quality.
It may still be in his range and lose money ...
Paradoxically, we gain a lot of money on small cars and you lose the fat, while for other manufacturers is the opposite. In fact we manage what is difficult and we miss what is the easiest. Nissan makes a lot of money on the high end can help us change things. And then there's redemption from Samsung in South Korea, which brings us valuable experience in the medium and high end. The World Cup will be an opportunity to show our ambitions.
