Forbes Asia - May 2018

MAY 2018 FORBES ASIA | 29

CHAMUSSY/SIPA/NEWSCOM

FORBES ASIA

AUTO TALK

Not So Fast

We’re ive years from safe driverless cars for all, says Carlos Ghosn.

T

he auto industry is experi-

encing a paradigm shit with

the growth of the global elec-

tric vehicle (EV) market as

well as the emergence of dis-

ruptive technologies like the autonomous-

ly driven vehicle. Despite the challenge of

staying competitive and proitable in this

changing environment, Carlos Ghosn, the

Brazilian-born 64-year old chairman and

CEO of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alli-

ance, believes the brands under his watch

are already in the pole position—and they

plan to stay there.

Speaking in Hong Kong recently,

Ghosn said the alliance is working well.

“We did not join the cemetery of all the

mergers in the car industry,” he said. “We

were able to ind a place for everyone.”

But he is quick to downplay his own role

in keeping the three companies aligned.

“It is not a question of one person, Su-

perman, doing it all. It’s a team of people.

Everybody in his place, everybody at a

certain point in time giving the added

value and support. So today I have long

experience in the industry. I’ve made

many turnarounds, so I can support a

lot of CEOs who want to listen to me.”

And now, little by little, he’s giving many

of his responsibilities to

others within the alliance

able to carry it forward.

“hey’ll be judged on

their scorecard—proit-

ability, growth, embrac-

ing technology,” he said.

New but afordable

technology—speciically

electric vehicles (EVs)—

is the alliance’s focus.

“Today we’re the largest

producer and seller of

electric cars in the world,”

Ghosn said. “We have the

most sold cars in Europe, most sold

electric cars in Japan ... and we are get-

ting back the title of most sold cars in

the United States—all because we started

irst.”

he group sold almost 500,000

EVs worldwide last year and plans to

introduce 12 new models by 2022. But

Ghosn admitted the group’s main EV

for China—the Nissan Leaf—was too

expensive for the world’s biggest electric

car market. “When you look at the

electric Chinese cars, they are very, very

afordable. he price point of the Leaf

today is not adequate for the Chinese

market,” he said. “[So] we’ve come up

with the Kwid EV, a much more aford-

able electric car,” referring to a crossover

project with Chinese partner Dong-

feng Motor Group. “hat said, I

think we have an advance on

electric cars with the

long experience we

have.... We’ve sold

more than half a

million electric cars

already and have

12 new models

planned—with

a lot of them coming in China. But

for China, the number of cars doesn’t

matter. You have to be in the right seg-

ment—the Kwid EV, in my opinion,

has more potential for sales than all the

other EVs we’ll be introducing.”

What about the other end of the EV

price scale, and brands such as Tesla?

Ghosn jokes that the media only loves

to talk about premium cars. “It’s an im-

portant niche, but a niche,” he said. “It’s

the other 90 million cars sold—they’re

all the bread-and-butter cars, the cars of

everyone. Even though people talk about

the $80,000 to $100,000 cars, they’re

a very small niche in our industry.”

He said most consumers—especially

in China—don’t care so much about

the technology: “hey care about the

functionality and the cost. he Chinese

government is pushing electric cars...

obviously forcing carmakers to make the

electric car more afordable—and with a

lot of functionality.”

Nissan, in particular, has been at the

forefront of even more cutting-edge

technology, speciically the driverless

car. Earlier this year it announced

plans to make self-driving taxis—robo-

taxis—in Tokyo, and in doing so chal-

lenge companies like Uber in an entire-

ly new space. But Nissan won’t be going

head to head with Uber, cautioned

Ghosn. “We’re going to be

providing driverless cars

for some companies,

but we’ll be man-

aging robo-taxis

ourselves in some

areas. It’s not

direct competi-

tion, it’s maybe

competition in

some cities.” F

Ghosn: “We’re the largest producer of electric cars in the world.”

The Kwid, made with Dongfeng Motor Group.

BY PAUL ARMSTRONG