Revista Presei - Mitsubishi News -

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Subaru Forester STI And Mitsubishi Evo Wagon Do Battle In Japanese Knife Fight

http://www.carscoops.com/2017/02/subaru ... i-evo.html

The 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport Limited Edition debuts in Chicago

http://www.autoblog.com/2017/02/06/2017 ... n-chicago/

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Mitsubishi expects to hit the 100,000 mark

http://www.autonews.com/article/2017020 ... 59ED73450A

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport Limited Edition Coming To Chicago Show, Priced From $21,995

http://www.carscoops.com/2017/02/mitsub ... mited.html

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport joins blacked-out Limited Editions

www.leftlanenews.com/mitsubishi-outland ... 94429.html

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Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi plans EV platform merge


http://paultan.org/2017/02/10/nissan-re ... orm-merge/



The Renault-Nissan Alliance could be consolidating all of its electric vehicle platforms, following its acquisition of a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. The new combined platform would help lower the cost of electric vehicles by utilising scale of economies, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

For all future electric vehicles, Renault and Mitsubishi will use the platform which forms the basis of the next-generation Nissan Leaf, and the three brands are to share key components such as the motor, battery and inverter, which will help lower the Leaf’s price by about 20% for a starting price of approximately $17,000 (RM76,131), it said.

“We believe the synergies will return 10 percent of Nissan’s investment in 2017 already and more than 20 percent the year after. As our partnership grows in the years to come, we will identify additional synergies at the regional level, as well as explore specific benefits for Renault and our other partners,” said Nissan chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

Nissan-Renault’s acquisition of a 34% stake in Mitsubishi comes after the latter was found to have overstated its cars’ fuel efficiency, eventually leading to the resignation of its president and Nissan-Renault’s stake acquisition.

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www.autonews.com/article/20170208/OEM01 ... shi-rescue

Renault-Nissan nears GM global sales after Mitsubishi rescue



Renault-Nissan Alliance came just short of matching General Motors and joining the ranks of the three biggest automakers by global sales, after CEO Carlos Ghosn rescued a Japanese peer last year.

Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. combined delivered 9.96 million vehicles last year, the alliance said in an emailed statement. The three automakers chaired by Ghosn finished fewer than 4,000 cars and trucks short of GM’s deliveries in 2016 and within about 350,000 units of new worldwide leader Volkswagen AG.

Ghosn emphasized the scale Renault and Nissan would add by coming to the aid of Japanese peer Mitsubishi Motors last year, following a fuel-economy scandal that dates back decades. The alliance is including Mitsubishi Motors in its sales tally despite Nissan owning only about 34 percent of the company.

“The combination of Groupe Renault, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors creates a new force in the global auto industry,’’ Ghosn said in the statement.

After taking over as Nissan’s president in 1999, Ghosn restored the struggling company to profitability by breaking up its keiretsu network of suppliers, shutting plants and leveraging the alliance with Renault.

Ghosn may have to put his restructuring skills to work again at Mitsubishi Motors, which is projecting a 202 billion yen ($1.8 billion) loss for the fiscal year ending in March. The carmaker said last year its management had failed to oversee proper fuel-economy as far back as 1991.

Mitsubishi Motors added 934,013 vehicle sales to the alliance’s total for 2016. Deliveries fell 13 percent last year, driven by sagging confidence in the brand in Japan and weaker demand from Brazil, Russia and the Middle East.

Both Renault and Nissan reported sales gains for 2016. Renault, which owns about 45 percent of Nissan, boosted deliveries by 13 percent to 3.2 million.

At Nissan, sales rose 2.5 percent to a record 5.6 million last year. The company holds a 15 percent stake in Renault.

The alliance said it remained the world’s top seller of electric vehicles, selling 94,265 last year. The two have delivered almost 425,000 since the Nissan Leaf went on sale in 2010.

Volkswagen dethroned Toyota Motor Corp. last year to become the world’s top-selling automaker for the first time despite its diesel-cheating scandal. The German automaker delivered a record 10.3 million vehicles in 2016, as Toyota fell short of 10.2 million.

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(foto) Mitsubishi a confirmat. Noul său crossover se va numi Eclipse Cross

http://autoblog.md/foto-mitsubishi-a-co ... pse-cross/

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Mitsubishi Outlander Sport an affordable SUV

http://www.rocklintoday.com/news/templa ... 0&zoneid=4

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Se intoarce modelul Mitsubishi Lancer 2017! Imagini si date tehnice in premiera-1.6 dCi 130 CP by Renault

http://www.autolatest.ro/stiri-masini/s ... by-renault

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2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross spy shots

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1027 ... thority%29

Updated Outlander has a new look, new sound

http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/latest-la ... nd-7859537

Jobsworth wardens fine driver £100 for leaving 4x4 inches out of bay in near-empty car park

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jo ... 00-9863071

SUV din China cu motor MITSUBISHI:

http://www.carnewschina.com/2017/02/22/ ... expensive/

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Carlos Ghosn renunţă la postul de CEO al Nissan: brazilianul se va concentra pe reducerea costurilor la Renault şi Mitsubishi

http://www.automarket.ro/stiri/carlos-g ... 75933.html

Carlos Ghosn a decis să se concentreze pe un amplu program de reduceri de costuri la Renault şi Mitsubishi, astfel că va demisiona din postul de CEO al Nissan dupa 16 ani. Locul său va fi luat de japonezul Hiroto Saikawa.


Alianţa Renault-Nissan va trece în acest an printr-o serie de schimbări importante, în special după ce a devenit acţionarul principal al celor de la Mitsubishi.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO-ul Alianţei, a anunţat că va demisiona din funcţia de CEO al celor de la Nissan, la 16 ani după ce a preluat această funcţie. Locul său va fi preluat de japonezul Hiroto Saikawa, care are o experienţă de 40 de ani în cadrul constructorului japonez, în timp ce Ghosn îşi va păstra postul de preşedinte.

Este cunoscut faptul că, dintre cei trei mari constructori din cadrul Alianţei, Nissan este cel mai profitabil şi are cele mai mari vânzări la nivel global.



Prin urmare, analiştii citaţi de agenţia de presă Reuters consideră că Ghosn se va concentra pe o nouă serie de programe de reduceri de costuri la Renault şi Mitsubishi. Acest lucru va permite creşterea profiturilor la Renault, în timp ce Mitsubishi traversează o perioadă de tranziţie după scandalul legat de trişarea testelor de consum în Japonia de anul trecut.

Momentul este cu atât mai important cu cât Alianţa Renault-Nissan a acumulat vânzări globale de 9.96 milioane de unităţi în 2016 după achiziţionarea Mitsubishi şi s-a apropiat astfel puternic de tripleta Volkswagen (10.31 milioane) - Toyota (10.17 milioane) - General Motors (9.96 milioane).

"Este posibil ca Ghosn să se concentreze pe creşterea profitabilităţii la toţi membri alianţei pentru ca aceştia să nu mai fie dependenţi de Nissan. Chiar dacă alianţa vinde 10 milioane de maşini, va fi dificil ca aceasta să continue dacă 3 milioane de maşini nu sunt profitabile", spune Takeshi Miyao, director executiv al compania de consultanţă Carnorama.

Via Reuters

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Rody fancies PH-made Mitsubishi

http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/02/27/rody-f ... itsubishi/

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Ghosn's 18 years of epic battles

http://www.autonews.com/article/2017022 ... 1B4A7FED24

NASHVILLE -- In the course of running Nissan Motor Co. for 18 years, Carlos Ghosn has racked up a long list of battles and dramas, many of them at his own instigation.

Ghosn's 1999-2017 era has been a colorful period of transformation and sometimes daring strategies for Japan's No. 2 automaker. Against a backdrop of industry consolidation, even as various world brands disappeared, Ghosn has repeatedly stepped in to resurrect brands and bolster struggling automakers.

After saving Nissan itself from bankruptcy, Ghosn has attempted to revive the Datsun brand, to resuscitate the French sports car brand Alpine, to modernize Russia's unwieldy AvtoVaz, and, most recently, to step in to save Japan's Mitsubishi.

Some of his battle campaigns succeeded, some failed, and some are still in play. Among them:
As a new arrival, Ghosn announced his revival plan for Nissan in 1999.

Saving Nissan: Nissan's near financial collapse in the late 1990s brought an unprecedented rescue from Renault, a company that had been in financial straits itself 15 years before and was partly owned by the French government.

Renault dispatched Ghosn, a former Michelin executive, to fix Nissan. To do so, Ghosn acted boldly, selling uncompetitive parts operations and even closing the automaker's Zama, Japan, vehicle assembly plant. By spring 2001, Ghosn could report record profits for Nissan. The steady flow of profits back to France has helped keep Renault strong.

The Alliance: Ghosn united Renault and Nissan through a structure that was strange to the auto industry, the Renault-Nissan Alliance. More than a limited partnership, less than a messy merger, the Alliance allowed Ghosn to seek synergies on a selective basis, preserving the independent national identities of the two corporations and allowing the two allies to set their own global product agendas.

The approach has had brilliant results, such as Nissan's quick use of a South Korean Renault factory to source hot-selling Rogue crossovers for the U.S. market. But it also has sometimes frustrated Ghosn, who has pressed the companies to move faster on cooperative r&d and product development.

American trucks: Soon after arriving in Japan, Ghosn heard the requests of U.S. Nissan dealers urging Nissan to move into bigger pickups and SUVs. Ghosn quickly approved a generous spending plan for product development and ample new U.S. plant capacity for full-sized pickups, full-sized SUVs and high-volume minivans.

The initial effort proved tough going. Nissan's first Titan pickup surged into the market, then fell back as a result of quality issues. The U.S. economic downturn quashed truck sales industrywide, and the new U.S.-made Quest minivan sold in volumes too low to warrant a dedicated U.S. factory program.

Ghosn did not surrender the field. The second-generation Titan, launched last year, is an even bolder investment, with multiple body, chassis and powertrain options. And Ghosn has widened the initial campaign by introducing U.S. commercial vans.

Consolidated purchasing: A key piece of Ghosn's Renault-Nissan Alliance was cutting global production costs by consolidating parts and material purchasing efforts. The resulting Renault-Nissan Purchasing Organization now handles most of the content going into vehicles across the Alliance, contributing the largest part of its annual savings of approximately $5.5 billion, according to the Alliance. Recent years have seen the use of common suppliers, common parts, shared engineering expenses and technologies, despite relatively small overlap between the companies' actual models.
Key players in the GM alliance talks, from left, Ghosn, Kerkorian and Wagoner

The GM gambit: In 2006 Las Vegas casino owner and deal-maker Kirk Kerkorian liked what he saw in Carlos Ghosn's turnaround of Nissan. Kerkorian believed General Motors was underperforming and could be similarly rejuvenated. After acquiring nearly 10 percent of GM's stock, Kerkorian made the Detroit giant squirm by pressing its board to consider a link-up with Ghosn's Renault-Nissan. The details were unspoken, but the widely held assumption was that, if GM's board agreed to the idea, CEO Rick Wagoner would step aside and the aggressive cost-cutting Ghosn would take over as admiral of an expanded alliance with headquarter bases in Asia, Europe and North America. Wagoner's board balked. Ghosn assured the media that his Alliance still needed a North American leg to its stool someday. Three years later, GM would plunge into bankruptcy and Wagoner would be replaced.

Relocations: Ghosn drew criticism in November 2005 when he announced he would move Nissan's North American sales and marketing headquarters from Los Angeles to suburban Nashville. His reasons: lower business operating costs in Tennessee, enhanced synergy with the thousands of employees and managers already stationed there for Nissan manufacturing, and the prospect of higher productivity by getting out of traffic-snarled L.A. Nissan lost more than 60 percent of its 1,300 California employees in the move, underscoring critics' point that the relocation would be destructive to the company and to the brand. But today, the Franklin, Tenn., sales and marketing headquarters employs close to 1,700, and the Nissan brand has grown in U.S. market share from 5.6 percent at the time of the announcement to 8.8 percent last month.

As part of the same campaign, and for the same reasons of cost reduction and productivity gains, Ghosn moved Nissan's corporate headquarters from Tokyo to the more manageable Yokohama and relocated Nissan Europe's HQ from pricey Paris to Rolle, Switzerland. In the years that followed, Toyota Motor Corp. followed suit by moving its U.S. headquarters from California to Texas, and Mercedes-Benz USA relocated from New Jersey to Georgia.

The Mexico strategy: Ghosn was ahead of Asian import rivals in grasping the opportunity of integrating Mexico into a North American manufacturing footprint. Ghosn's move to invest heavily in Mexico small-car production helped the Versa become the biggest selling subcompact in the U.S. market and also fueled Nissan's ascent as market sales leader in Mexico.

The success showed the way for Honda, Mazda, Toyota, Kia and others to invest in Mexican small-car plants. But that wave has now created a challenge for Nissan, with the Trump administration threatening to penalize automakers for bringing Mexico-built vehicles into the United States.

The bounce back: When the Lehman shock sent world economies into a tailspin in September 2008, Ghosn gathered his executives in Yokohama over the Japanese Autumn Equinox Day holiday and asked them to immediately draw up emergency response plans for every department that would conserve cash and identify likely problems.

He created a task force of managers to do what they had to do to stop financial losses, and appointed a former U.K. factory paint-line manager, Colin Dodge, as his chief recovery officer. Ghosn empowered Dodge to root out problems and fix them and to declare the crisis over whenever he felt like it was over.

The task force worked so well, and quickly, that Nissan soon found itself increasing its U.S. market share. The emergency role of Dodge, since retired, morphed into a new global senior executive position of chief performance officer. Ghosn now counts on his CPO to travel the world, ensuring that every program and every initiative is on target to meet its objectives.

EVs: The world was a bit incredulous in 2008 when Ghosn proclaimed that Nissan would have a battery-powered electric family car on the road in 2010. But anticipating a worldwide shift to more environmentally benign personal vehicles, Ghosn largely jump-started the EV business. Other EVs had come before, but Ghosn used words like "mass market" and "affordable" in describing his vision.

He delivered. The Leaf EV came to market in 2010, and by that time, he had already embarked on a $5.6 billion global investment plan to build EV manufacturing lines, advanced vehicle battery module plants and EV component production in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.

Ghosn has spent the past several years defending his vision and enduring industry critics who dismissed EVs as a technology that was too expensive and impractical for car shoppers. His U.S. Leaf factory, built to assemble up to 150,000 EVs a year, turned out just 14,000 last year. But despite low gasoline prices, the industry is suddenly coming to Ghosn's same conclusion. Volks-wagen, Toyota, Daimler and Tesla are now pursuing EV strategies.

The Russian campaign: Ghosn championed the idea of winning auto sales in Russia through the country's biggest automaker, AvtoVAZ. The Renault-Nissan Alliance took a controlling interest in AvtoVAZ in 2012, and Ghosn named himself chairman. He hoped to bring to the former Soviet enterprise new-world management practices, better efficiency and cost management. Ghosn even recruited Bo Andersson, formerly of Saab and GM, to run the company as CEO.

But the challenges of Russia proved too formidable. The economy suffered a protracted recession. Russian labor laws proved too restrictive. Workers and the supply chain were threatened by new ideas about efficiency and resisted change. Andersson was ousted, and Ghosn subsequently stepped down as chairman, although the Alliance retains its ownership interest.

The Daimler affair: Ghosn's alliance between Renault and Nissan was a radical enough business model for the auto industry. But his more recent relationship with Daimler has operated even further outside the norm. Jokingly calling their global working relationship "friends with benefits," Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche more or less cooperate on projects as the opportunity strikes. There is only a token of cross-ownership; each owns just 3.1 percent of the other. And each CEO insists that he will pursue a project if it's mutually beneficial and won't pursue it if it's not.

So far, the arrangement has yielded shared Smart cars, shared Mercedes small turbocharged engines, an Infiniti crossover built by Nissan on a Mercedes architecture and, later this year, a $2 billion factory in Mexico that will produce both Mercedes and Infiniti branded vehicles. Recent news reports claimed that Ghosn had taken a pass on sharing a future Mercedes-based small car. But Nissan executives say the loose arrangement remains intact.

The market-share push: One of the most controversial campaigns in Ghosn's 18 years has been his 2011 mandate for Nissan North America to command 10 percent of the U.S. market by March 31, 2017, up from 8 percent in mid-2011. That deadline is now just a month away. Nissan's January share was 9.8 percent, up from 8.9 percent for all of 2016.

But Ghosn's goal, an unofficial component of his "Power 88" midterm business plan, has been blamed by some U.S. dealers for what they call overly aggressive incentivizing of auto sales, as well as for sour relations with some underperforming dealers. The company has pressed retailers to raise sales volumes through quarterly and annual volume targets and bonus reward programs. U.S. officials say they are merely incentivizing the dealer body to reach for the next level.

Political challenges: Automaker CEOs have enough to worry about without having to lock horns with a national government. Ghosn has had to tiptoe through three political challenges to his operations in the past two years.

In 2015 the French government attempted to increase its control of Renault stock in a bid to prevent Nissan from exerting greater control over Renault. The change could have placed new restrictions on the Alliance's freedom of movement. Ghosn successfully defused that effort, at least for the time being.

The following year, Ghosn confronted politicians in the U.K. over the new reality of Brexit, the nation's vote to exit the European Union. Nissan has for decades poured investment into its Sunderland manufacturing complex in England on the assurance that its vehicles would move freely to European customers and that European content would move freely to Sunderland. Ghosn is now warning that those investments are at risk.

Ghosn faces a third operating challenge from the new Trump administration in the U.S. Nissan has grown in North America thanks in part to its free-trade investments in Mexican small-car assembly plants. Nissan is currently completing an additional $2 billion plant there to introduce Infiniti and Mercedes production in Mexico for mostly U.S. customers. But the White House is threatening to levy a border tax on Mexico-made vehicles, a move that would rob Nissan's cars and SUVs of some competitive edge.

Mitsubishi: Ghosn took the dramatic step last year of acquiring controlling interest in smaller Japanese rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Saying Mitsubishi offers Nissan and Renault opportunities in small-car development, as well as further savings in consolidated global purchasing, Ghosn quickly moved to incorporate Mitsubishi as an Alliance partner.

As part of his plan to exit as Nissan's CEO, Ghosn said last week he will retain his title of Mitsubishi chairman. That automaker is ripe for the same revitalization that Ghosn brought to Nissan in 1999.

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http://www.autonews.com/article/2017022 ... work-to-do

Ghosn's successor will have work to do. Saikawa must tackle flailing Datsun brand, Mitsubishi cleanup



TOKYO -- As Carlos Ghosn hands him the CEO title at a much improved, more profitable and increasingly powerful Nissan Motor Co., Hiroto Saikawa will have to tackle several lingering weak points.

Saikawa, Ghosn's longtime loyal No. 2, has spent 40 years at Nissan in multiple executive roles. The Nissan lifer knows the company is radically improved from the wreck Ghosn parachuted into in 1999. But as Nissan returns to Japanese managerial control for the first time in nearly two decades, Saikawa also knows there is much unfinished business.

• The post-Ghosn Nissan needs to reassert its lead in electric vehicles as rivals are piling into the segment with product innovations.

• Nissan must bolster its flailing Datsun brand to capture opportunities in emerging markets.

• And Nissan must re-energize its pint-sized Infiniti luxury brand, which is still struggling to gain global traction.

Additionally, Saikawa's Nissan must find ways to cooperate with troubled Mitsubishi Motors Corp. without being dragged down by its new partner's problems. And Nissan is still hungry to overcome a seemingly unshakable image as a second-tier player that forces the carmaker to shell out more incentives than rivals.

"Saikawa's biggest job will be cleaning up that mess," said Tatsuo Yoshida, a former Nissan employee who is a senior auto analyst at Sawakami Asset Management Inc. in Tokyo.
Ghosn: "The time is right" to step back. Photo credit: BLOOMBERG

No difference

These challenges and others are likely targets for one of Saikawa's first orders of business when he takes control as CEO on April 1: crafting a new midterm business plan to follow the March 31 conclusion of Ghosn's multiyear Power 88 plan. That plan, among other things, zeroed in on lifting Nissan's global market share.

The incoming CEO knows well what still needs fixing because, as Ghosn's longtime right-hand man and Nissan's veteran chief competitive officer, he helped chart the company's course.
As Ghosn’s longtime No. 2, Hiroto Saikawa has helped Ghosn chart Nissan’s course.

Big changes are unlikely right away. Continuity is a key reason Ghosn tapped Saikawa in October as co-CEO, after completing Nissan's purchase of a controlling stake in Mitsubishi.

"There is no difference between what I think and what he thinks," Ghosn said of Saikawa then.

Nor does Ghosn plan to fade completely from the scene.

Ghosn, 62, stays on as chairman, not only of Nissan but of Renault SA and Mitsubishi. Ghosn said his new priority is coordinating high-level strategy among the alliance partners.

But down the road, Nissan's direction could change.

The CEO shuffle brings Ghosn closer to eventual retirement. That is a day many employees dread because his sheer force of will is often credited with holding the alliance together.

And, at 63, Saikawa is even older than Ghosn. When it's Saikawa's time to bow out, his replacement might not be as enamored with Ghosn's strategy or so invested in his legacy.

Promises

Saikawa won Ghosn's trust as the enforcer who helped break the Nissan keiretsu of affiliated suppliers in the early days of the Nissan revival plan. As the point man on purchasing, Saikawa made cost and performance, not cozy relationships, the arbiter of business deals.

Saikawa's appointment makes good on two Ghosn promises:

1. Ghosn often said he did not want his eventual successor to be dual CEO of alliance companies, Renault and Nissan, as Ghosn has been.

Now, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi will have their own CEOs. (Ghosn still holds the CEO and chairman titles at Renault.)

2. Ghosn also made clear that he preferred a Japanese successor at Nissan.

That move shouldn't be underestimated. Returning control to a Japanese exec comes amid internal hand-wringing about Nissan's identity, insiders say.

Nissan, Japan's oldest carmaker, is struggling to reclaim a place in the hearts of people in its home country. Nissan long loomed as the country's most iconic and influential carmaker, only to be eclipsed by compatriot competitor Toyota Motor Corp. and then have its national identity watered down by the 1999 bailout by France's Renault.

Saikawa's ascent may be a morale booster for Nissan's Japanese ranks.

Unfinished business

On other promises, however, Ghosn has a history of aiming higher than he can deliver.

His Power 88 midterm business plan wraps up March 31. And it missed the two targets represented by the eights in its title. Nissan is neither on track to reach 8 percent global market share nor an 8 percent operating profit margin.

Saikawa will likely pick up those pieces when drawing his own road map this year.

Ghosn told Automotive News in October that Nissan would drop numerical targets in the upcoming plan, partly because the auto industry is changing so rapidly.

While Power 88 set formidable numerical targets six years out when it was introduced, the next plan will outline numerical goals for no more than three years, but qualitative ones beyond that.

Ghosn also said at the time that the future is so clouded by the promise of autonomous driving, electrification, new mobility and interloping new players that it is too hard to read, even only five years out.

With Power 88 coming to a close, Ghosn said, "the time is right" to step back.

"As Nissan's Chairman, I will continue to supervise and guide the company, both independently and within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance," Ghosn said in a statement last week. "This planned change will also allow me to devote more time and energy to managing the strategic and operational evolution and expansion of the Alliance and ensuring that all its members benefit from the competitive advantages that its scale will deliver."

Well-oiled machine

Saikawa joined Nissan in 1977 and was chief competitive officer from 2013 to 2016. Before that, his roles included chairman of the management committees of the Americas and Europe and executive vice president of purchasing.

He also was a board member of Renault between 2006 and 2016, and is chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the country's auto lobby.

Looking ahead, Saikawa must burnish an image that, despite the years of improvements by Ghosn, is overshadowed by Toyota, Honda and Subaru. Saikawa has to stoke the fire at Infiniti and Datsun. He needs to fix Nissan's incentive addiction in North America.

But much remains right at Japan's second-largest automaker, especially relative to its partners. Nissan is robust and competitive, with an operating profit almost twice Renault's. And new partner Mitsubishi is still reeling from a fuel economy testing scandal in Japan.

"Why would Ghosn step down from Nissan? Because it's the well-oiled machine in the alliance. It's the one running best," said Chris Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. "Nissan just doesn't need him as much."
Next steps: "Supervise and guide." Photo credit: BLOOMBERG

Balancing the alliance

In his years running Nissan, Ghosn not only saved a Japan Inc. flagship, but he turned it into one of the world's biggest auto empires, which now operates leaner, more profitably and with broad access to the green powertrains and autonomous safety technologies that will rule the future.

Along the way, Nissan and Renault switched roles. Nissan's healthy stream of profits helped prop up its French rescuer. Ghosn used Nissan's cash cushion to buy Mitsubishi on the cheap.

In pursuit of ever-bigger scale, Ghosn acquired control of Mitsubishi last year and catapulted the alliance to No. 4 in combined global auto sales, behind Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors.

Thanks to the addition of Mitsubishi's 934,013 vehicles, the alliance's global volume surged to 9.96 million vehicles in 2016, falling just a hair short of third-place GM.

But Ghosn maintains that any merger between the alliance partners -- or even a major rejiggering of the cross-holdings -- is off the table as long as the French government holds its stake in Renault.

That is partly a nod to Nissan's independence and partly to Saikawa.

Saikawa spearheaded Nissan's 2015 pushback against the French government's move to boost its voting rights in Renault. Nissan worried about interference in its corporate governance because Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, while Nissan holds only 15 percent of Renault. With Ghosn's intervention, the French government demurred, pledging not to meddle in Nissan's affairs.

As chairman, Ghosn can still protect Nissan, and for good reason.

Aside from profits, Nissan also generates much of the next-generation technology Ghosn is betting the alliance's future on: electrified vehicles and autonomous driving.

Nissan, not Renault, has pioneered the path in both fields.

Saikawa will need to safeguard that cash cow and make sure it keeps giving more milk.