Ghosn focuses alliance on EV assault
Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Automotive News Canada
  • Automotive News Europe
  • Automotive News Mexico
  • Automotive News China
  • Automobilwoche
AN-LOGO-BLUE
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Dealers
    • Automakers & Suppliers
    • News by Brand
    • Cars & Concepts
    • China
    • Shift
    • Mobility Report
    • Special Reports
    • Digital Edition Archive
    • This Week's Issue
    • TrumpReuters.jpg
      Trump touts finishing 'big deal' with China soon
      Annual electrified vehicle sales likely to dip in 2019
      GM loses more ground as JV deliveries fall
      VW brand posts sales growth for 3 straight months
    • Many lessons learned -- and some underway -- on battery safety
      Four technologies that could take the world beyond lithium ion
      How adhesives aid EV design
      A look at how lithium ion batteries work
    • Connected cars yield to broadband as FCC advances airwaves plan
      CEO of GM's Cruise hints at offering low-cost shared rides
      NTSB scrutinizes 'automation complacency' after Uber crash
      Karl-Thomas Neumann joins board of Israeli startup
    • Automotive News special report: Retail Realities
      2019 UAW-Detroit 3 negotiations: The path forward
      Dealerships owned by ex-NFL stars face collapse, litigation
      Want a luxury car? Try a Kia
    • With battery partner, GM eases risk
      Automakers push GPB to sell stores
      FCA and PSA together will be stronger, Tavares says
      Nissan furloughs U.S. employees to save cash
    • Access F&I
    • Fixed Ops Journal
    • Marketing
    • Used Cars
    • Sales
    • Best Practices
    • Dealership Buy/Sell
    • NADA
    • NADA Show
    • Automakers
    • Manufacturing
    • Suppliers
    • Regulations & Safety
    • Executives
    • Leading Women Network
    • Guide to Economic Development
    • PACE Awards
    • Management Briefing Seminars
    • World Congress
    • Aston Martin
    • BMW
      • Mini
      • Rolls-Royce
    • Daimler
      • Mercedes Benz
      • Smart
    • Fiat Chrysler
      • Alfa Romeo
      • Chrysler
      • Dodge
      • Ferrari
      • Fiat
      • Jeep
      • Maserati
      • Ram
    • Ford
      • Lincoln
    • General Motors
      • Buick
      • Cadillac
      • Chevrolet
      • GMC
      • Holden
    • Honda
      • Acura
    • Hyundai
      • Genesis
      • Kia
    • Mazda
    • McLaren
    • Mitsubishi
    • Nissan
      • Infiniti
    • PSA
      • Citroen
      • Opel
      • Peugeot
    • Renault
    • Subaru
    • Suzuki
    • Tata
      • Jaguar
      • Land Rover
    • Tesla
    • Toyota
      • Lexus
    • Volkswagen
      • Audi
      • Bentley
      • Bugatti
      • Lamborghini
      • Porsche
      • Seat
      • Skoda
    • Volvo
    • (Discontinued Brands)
    • Auto Shows
      • Detroit Auto Show
      • New York Auto Show
      • Los Angeles Auto Show
      • Chicago Auto Show
      • Geneva Auto Show
      • Paris Auto Show
      • Frankfurt Auto Show
      • Toronto Auto Show
      • Tokyo Auto Show
      • Shanghai Auto Show
      • Beijing Auto Show
    • Future Product Pipeline
    • Photo Galleries
    • Car Cutaways
    • Design
  • OPINION
    • Blogs
    • Cartoons
    • Keith Crain
    • Automotive Views with Jason Stein
    • Columnists
    • China Commentary
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send us a Letter
    • Alfa-Romeo-Stelvio- web.jpg
      Alfa Romeo could be Tavares' toughest turnaround
      Iacobelli
      Alphons Iacobelli: The bad penny that keeps turning up
      With Mach-E, Ford ensures Mustang badge will live on
      Autonomous
      A call for clarity on self-driving terminology
    • view gallery
      1 photos
      Hop On In
      view gallery
      1 photos
      Polarizing Design
      view gallery
      1 photos
      Charging Ahead
      Roger Penske buys the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar
      view gallery
      1 photos
      Pace Truck
    • Shifting gears away from the stick shift
      SEMA still a wonderful circus
      Penske still has plenty of races to win
      Ford's turn in the hot seat
    • December 13, 2019 | Toyota’s Lentz had grace, style and class
      December 6, 2019 | All-Stars will leave an imprint on the industry’s future
      November 29, 2019 | Plenty to be thankful for in the automotive industry
      November 22, 2019 | GM’s lawsuit against FCA is all about payback
    • Jody Hall
      Manufacturing materials count in vehicles' impact on planet
      EV hype or reality? Follow the money
      Lindsay VanHulle
      AI changes work at dealerships
      Troy Blackwell
      New ideas needed to lift EV residuals
    • Output begins to recover, but pressure remains for carmakers
      EV taxis
      Beijing, unrelenting, steps up push for EV output
      Buick in China
      Global automakers raise bet on gasoline crossovers, SUVs in search of growth opportunities
      American brands, losing ground, face new challenges in China
    • Uber case should prompt tighter AV controls
      Plan to clean up UAW corruption is a good start
      Shared benefits make FCA-PSA union worth risk
      GM, UAW should get credit for working out deal
    • Cadillac needs to get its priorities straight
      Trabant has been reliable, mostly
      EVs have challenges, but so did early ICEs
      Detroit 3's sedan move shortsighted
  • DATA CENTER
  • VIDEO
    • AutoNews Now
    • First Shift
    • Special Video Reports
    • Weekend Drive
    • AutoNews Now: Mercedes to delay U.S. launch of all-electric EQC
      AutoNews Now: Asbury to buy luxury dealerships for $1B
      AutoNews Now: Toyota NA chief Jim Lentz to retire in March
      AutoNews Now: GM, Ford praise USMCA compromise
    • First Shift: Tesla says Cybertruck likely will be medium-duty pickup
      First Shift: Feds probe July fire at UAW headquarters
      First Shift: Chevy SUVs get more space, tech, safety features
      First Shift: Workers at several FCA plants vote to approve contract
    • Florida FCA store scores with soft-sell approach in service drive
      Ford's Jim Hackett on Wall Street, the Mustang Mach-E and tech opportunities for dealers
      watch video
      9:13
      Women service staffers defy perceptions, boost customer satisfaction
      Tenn. dealer preaches profits, fixed ops longevity, workplace empathy
    • Why Carlos Tavares wants to merge PSA and FCA  
      Lincoln aims to 'paint a new picture' for shoppers
      VW's Scott Keogh on bringing 'cool' EVs to the masses
      How Toyota found its 'niche' in Mexico
  • EVENTS & AWARDS
    • Events
    • Awards
    • World Congress
    • Retail Forum: NADA
    • Canada Congress
    • Marketing 360: L.A.
    • Europe Congress
    • Retail Forum: Chicago
    • Leading Women Conference Detroit
    • Retail Forum: Toronto
    • Fixed Ops Journal Forum
    • 100 Leading Women
      • Submit a nomination for 2020
    • 40 Under 40 Retail
    • All-Stars
    • Best Dealerships To Work For
    • PACE Awards
    • PACEpilot
    • Rising Stars
    • Europe Rising Stars
  • JOBS
  • +MORE
    • Leading Women Network
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
    • Publishing Partners
    • Classifieds
    • People on the Move
    • Newsletters
    • Contact Us
    • Media Kit
    • RSS Feeds
    • Shift: A Podcast About Mobility
    • Special Reports Podcasts
    • Weekend Drive Podcasts
    • Ally: Do It Right
    • DealerSocket
    • Deloitte: Cyber everywhere: Preparing for automotive safety in the face of cyber threats
    • Facebook: The road to a zero-friction future
    • Guide To Economic Development
    • PayPal Credit: How consumer financing helps drive sales for online auto parts retailers
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Executives
November 12, 2017 12:00 AM

Ghosn focuses alliance on EV assault

Lindsay Chappell
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Ghosn: Now, competitors get EVs. “The reality appears more clearly to a lot of people today.”

    NEW YORK — Carlos Ghosn refuses to say the words "I told you so." But you know he's thinking it.

    For almost a decade, Ghosn has been the industry's biggest cheerleader for electric vehicles — predicting their rise, touting the logic of their technology and suffering all the slings and arrows of critics who said he was wrong.

    Ahead of his competitors, Ghosn bullishly invested $5 billion in 2010 and 2011 to build mass-market EV assembly lines and battery plants in the U.S., Europe and Japan for the two automakers he oversaw, Nissan Motor Co. and Renault.

    Many in the industry shrugged off EV technology, saying consumers weren't interested. But now, automakers from BMW to Volkswagen are scrambling to electrify their vehicle portfolios. Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo all have revealed big EV product plans in recent months.

    "Now they come," Ghosn quips of the growing industry trend. "Everybody's coming. The reality appears more clearly to a lot of people today."

    Ghosn in September unveiled a six-year business plan for the newly renamed Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, of which he is CEO, to create 12 electric models worldwide.

    The 12 will be jointly developed by the alliance and sold through Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi brands. And many more models will follow those, he hints during an interview last week at the alliance's Manhattan offices.

    The 2018 Nissan Leaf: Experience gives 
alliance the edge, Ghosn says.

    Early to market

    But Ghosn believes his group has an advantage over the competitors now following him into the EV space: The alliance companies have been at it longer, with the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe in mass production since 2010 and 2012.

    "The knowledge we have today with the Leaf or the Zoe is extremely precious," Ghosn says, "because we know how people use electric cars, what they need and what are the problems. This will allow us to prepare a much better generation of electric cars coming in the next six years.

    "These 12 are not, 'This is our first venture,'" he adds. "No, no. These are cars coming to take an important position, and they will be profitable, with cost targets that are based on reputation and best of technology."

    The plan will unfold in a new era of development for the three automakers. As CEO, Ghosn is pushing the alliance to step up its coordination of technology-sharing and co-development work. Another part of the six-year plan calls for much more emphasis on shared vehicle platforms and powertrains. Ghosn says that by 2022, 9 million of the three companies' vehicle sales will come from four shared platforms.

    The 12 EVs of the next six years will be a group undertaking, not individual models developed separately by the alliance member companies.

    "Now we're saying: One platform. One set of batteries. One set of motors," says Ghosn, who handed over his CEO title at Nissan this year but remains chairman of the automaker. "We're going to go together because our objectives are mass marketing and profitability."

    $8,000 EV

    The program is already underway. Ghosn has assigned a team of alliance engineers to develop a low-cost EV model for China that is based on the mini-segment Renault Kwid. Ghosn test drove the prototype in China in October. After it hits the market there in 2019, the alliance expects to export the Kwid EV to India and Brazil.

    Early reports suggest the car could sell for as little as $8,000.

    Ghosn admits to feeling some vindication of his original EV strategy after years of defending what looked for a time to be a product flop. The Leaf sold only about 2,500 a month in the U.S. in 2014, its best year. A second generation is just now launching.

    Ghosn never wavered from his belief in EVs.

    "People said, 'Yeah, but you could be wrong.' But I knew that the constraints on emissions were becoming heavier," he says. "There was no way ... we could solve all these limitations technically through gasoline engines and diesel engines or even hybrids. We needed to move to something more radical, like electric cars.

    "For me it was obvious," he says of his idea, voiced in 2008, to mass-produce electrics. "And I said, the first one who was going to move in this direction was going to benefit a lot, not only in terms of brand, but in terms of the advantage of mass-marketing the electric car."

    Related Articles
    Nissan softens its targets through '22
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Digital Edition
    THIS WEEK'S EDITION
    See our archive
    Fixed Ops Journal
    Fixed Ops Journal - 10-21-19
    Read the issue
    See our archive
    Sign up for free newsletters
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get Free Newsletters

    Sign up and get the best of Automotive News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Now

    Get 24/7 access to in-depth, authoritative coverage of the auto industry from a global team of reporters and editors covering the news that’s vital to your business.

    Subscribe Now
    Connect With Us
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter

    Our mission

    The Automotive News mission is to be the primary source of industry news, data and understanding for the industry's decision-makers interested in North America.

    AN-LOGO-BLUE
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit, Michigan
    48207-2997

    (877) 812-1584

    Email us

    Automotive News
    ISSN 0005-1551 (print)
    ISSN 1557-7686 (online)

    Fixed Ops Journal
    ISSN 2576-1064 (print)
    ISSN 2576-1072 (online)

    Resources
    • About us
    • Contact Us
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe
    • Manage your account
    • Reprints
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    Automotive News
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • HOME
    • NEWS
      • Dealers
        • Access F&I
        • Fixed Ops Journal
        • Marketing
        • Used Cars
        • Sales
        • Best Practices
        • Dealership Buy/Sell
        • NADA
        • NADA Show
      • Automakers & Suppliers
        • Automakers
        • Manufacturing
        • Suppliers
        • Regulations & Safety
        • Executives
        • Leading Women Network
        • Guide to Economic Development
        • PACE Awards
        • Management Briefing Seminars
        • World Congress
      • News by Brand
        • Aston Martin
        • BMW
          • Mini
          • Rolls-Royce
        • Daimler
          • Mercedes Benz
          • Smart
        • Fiat Chrysler
          • Alfa Romeo
          • Chrysler
          • Dodge
          • Ferrari
          • Fiat
          • Jeep
          • Maserati
          • Ram
        • Ford
          • Lincoln
        • General Motors
          • Buick
          • Cadillac
          • Chevrolet
          • GMC
          • Holden
        • Honda
          • Acura
        • Hyundai
          • Genesis
          • Kia
        • Mazda
        • McLaren
        • Mitsubishi
        • Nissan
          • Infiniti
        • PSA
          • Citroen
          • Opel
          • Peugeot
        • Renault
        • Subaru
        • Suzuki
        • Tata
          • Jaguar
          • Land Rover
        • Tesla
        • Toyota
          • Lexus
        • Volkswagen
          • Audi
          • Bentley
          • Bugatti
          • Lamborghini
          • Porsche
          • Seat
          • Skoda
        • Volvo
        • (Discontinued Brands)
      • Cars & Concepts
        • Auto Shows
          • Detroit Auto Show
          • New York Auto Show
          • Los Angeles Auto Show
          • Chicago Auto Show
          • Geneva Auto Show
          • Paris Auto Show
          • Frankfurt Auto Show
          • Toronto Auto Show
          • Tokyo Auto Show
          • Shanghai Auto Show
          • Beijing Auto Show
        • Future Product Pipeline
        • Photo Galleries
        • Car Cutaways
        • Design
      • China
      • Shift
      • Mobility Report
      • Special Reports
      • Digital Edition Archive
      • This Week's Issue
    • OPINION
      • Blogs
      • Cartoons
      • Keith Crain
      • Automotive Views with Jason Stein
      • Columnists
      • China Commentary
      • Editorials
      • Letters to the Editor
      • Send us a Letter
    • DATA CENTER
    • VIDEO
      • AutoNews Now
      • First Shift
      • Special Video Reports
      • Weekend Drive
    • EVENTS & AWARDS
      • Events
        • World Congress
        • Retail Forum: NADA
        • Canada Congress
        • Marketing 360: L.A.
        • Europe Congress
        • Retail Forum: Chicago
        • Leading Women Conference Detroit
        • Retail Forum: Toronto
        • Fixed Ops Journal Forum
      • Awards
        • 100 Leading Women
          • Submit a nomination for 2020
        • 40 Under 40 Retail
        • All-Stars
        • Best Dealerships To Work For
        • PACE Awards
        • PACEpilot
        • Rising Stars
        • Europe Rising Stars
    • JOBS
    • +MORE
      • Leading Women Network
      • Podcasts
        • Shift: A Podcast About Mobility
        • Special Reports Podcasts
        • Weekend Drive Podcasts
      • Webinars
      • Publishing Partners
        • Ally: Do It Right
        • DealerSocket
        • Deloitte: Cyber everywhere: Preparing for automotive safety in the face of cyber threats
        • Facebook: The road to a zero-friction future
        • Guide To Economic Development
        • PayPal Credit: How consumer financing helps drive sales for online auto parts retailers
      • Classifieds
      • People on the Move
      • Newsletters
      • Contact Us
      • Media Kit
      • RSS Feeds