Renault/Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, said that General Motors Company would have been better off if it had formed an alliance with his companies in 2006. GM and Renault/Nissan called the talks off in October 2006.

“Without any doubt,” he said during a forum sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. “We knew fundamentally that this would work, but only if it was a collaborative effort.”

Ghosn said that there was huge “possibility to create something that would be extremely competitive.” He said the alliance would have allowed both companies to share technology, practices and a common approach.

When asked if he was happy that the alliance with GM fell through, Ghosn said: “When you see the disaster and the waste of energy and skills and talent, nobody can be happy.”

He went on to say that the auto industry had become much more interconnected.

“When General Motors was in danger, everybody was scared. We were scared. Because some of our suppliers are big suppliers of General Motors,” Ghosn said. “If they go down, we would not have been able to assemble any single car in the United States.”

- By: Omar Rana

Photo Copyright © 2009 Jack Rosenfeld – egmCarTech.

Source: Detroit News

Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn told Automotive News today that he has ruled out a stand-alone hybrid like the Toyota Prius.

“We don’t have this in our plans,” Ghosn said. “We are not intending to play a leadership role in hybrids. “One company already assumed leadership in the technology. We want leadership on EVs.”

Ghosn said that Nissan will offer hybrid variants of existing models in its lineup.

Nissan’s first in-house technology will be seen in the 2011 Infiniti M35, which will go on sale in the U.S. in spring 2011. Nissan’s hybrid system for the Infiniti M consists of a single electric-motor/twin-clutch arrangement, mated to a naturally aspirated 3.5L V6.

2011 Infiniti M:

- By: Stephen Calogera

Coming as a shocker to most of us, Penske Automotive Group announced yesterday that it has “terminated its discussions with GM to buy Saturn, citing concerns directly related to the future supply of vehicles beyond the supply period it had negotiated with GM.”

Originally, Pesnke’s plans were to sell GM made models for the next three years. After the three year period, Penske was to fill Saturn dealerships with other products from various automakers. Sources continually said that Penske was in talks with French automaker Renault and its South Korean unit, Samsung to supply Saturn dealers.

Renault COO Patrick Pelata confirmed today that talks with Penske to sell vehicles through Saturn broke down last minute.

“We negotiated with them but we were unable to reach agreement at the end,” Renault COO Patrick Pelata told Bloomberg News in an interview.

Pelata said that Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn was not in favor of supplying Penske with cars to sell through Saturn showrooms.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Bloomberg (via AutoObserver)

Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn believes that U.S. auto sales should begin recovery towards the end of 2009. On the other hand, Ghosn said that he doesn’t expect to see the European auto market to recover before 2011.

“I don’t see it in Europe before 2011. I see 2010 at the same level of 2009, with ups and downs,” Ghosn told the International Herald Tribune.

Like other CEOs, Ghosn also loves the UK scrappage program, a program very similar to our Cash for Clunkers legislation.

“If scrapping incentives were to continue for a while, it would be a different story. Stopping the incentives would have a recessionary impact,” Ghosn said.

Nissan’s U.S. sales were down 35.2 percent to 289,446 in the first 5 months of 2009.

Source: Reuters

- By: Omar Rana

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that he has no plans to resign until the Japanese automaker is “once again comfortably making profits.”

When Ghosn joined Nissan from Renault in 1999 as chief operating officer, he said that he expected to stay for 10 years.

“If you leave now, you wouldn’t be leaving — you would be deserting,” he said in an interview, after announcing his first annual operating loss on Tuesday.

Ghosn said that the “comfortable profits” were expected to come in the fiscal year ending 2011; assuming that auto demand stayed at 54 million vehicles, the dollar averaged 95 yen and Nissan cut costs.

However, the global economic crisis and the strong yen have pushed back Nissan’s goals.

- By: Kap Shah

Source: Reuters

Now that Congress and even President-elect Barack Obama have voiced their opinions on Detroit’s Big 3 executives the question on everyone’s mind is: Who will replace GM’s Rick Wagoner? While GM COO Fritz Henderson may seem like a logical choice, his chances are slim since his supporters may be washed out along with Wagoner. Either way names are flying around in Detroit on who the next GM CEO could be.

One name everyone is familiar with is GE’s Jack Welch. Besides being everyone’s favorite CEO in the 1990s and having an outstanding track record, 73-year old Welch may not be up for working for very little compensation.

Another name on everyone’s mind is Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. The 54-year old would probably love to make GM the third-leg of his French/Japanese tripod, but Congress probably wouldn’t fund such an alliance.

The third name that comes up every time there’s a job open in Detroit is Roger Penske. The 71-year old currently runs a successful auto retailing business distributing Smart cars and knows the auto industry inside and out.

Let us know who you think GM should consider replacing Wagoner – if the move actually takes place?

Source: CNNMoney