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Carlos Ghosn, the cost cutter who cost a lot in compensation

PARIS — In his 40 years in the auto industry, the praise Carlos Ghosn has won for turning around businesses has regularly been matched by criticism over the amount he has been paid to do it. In the latest furore over his finances, Japan's Nissan Motor Co said on Monday it planned to oust Ghosn as chairman after alleging he had made personal use of company assets, among other acts of suspected misconduct. The scandal comes just five months after the 64-year-old head of the Renault-Nissan alliance narrowly won a shareholder vote at Renault over his 7.4 million euro ($8.5 million) pay package for 2017, after losing a 2016 vote. Brazilian-born, of Lebanese descent and a French citizen, Ghosn began his career in 1978 at tire maker Michelin, before moving to Renault in 1996, where he oversaw a turnaround at the French automaker that won him the nickname "Le Cost Killer." After Renault sealed an alliance with Nissan in 1999, Ghosn used similar methods to revive the ailing Japanese brand, leading to "business superstar" status in Japan, blanket media coverage and even a manga comic book on his life. As auto markets in western Europe and Japan struggled, Ghosn championed a cheap car for the masses in emerging markets and embraced the electric vehicle before many others. He also never made it a secret that he believed there were too many carmakers in the world and consolidation would continue — in 2016 he added Japan's Mitsubishi Motors to the alliance. But in recent months, attention has increasingly turned to how the complex web of cross-shareholdings between the alliance partners might be simplified to ensure it can thrive following the eventual departure of its main architect. In March, sources close to the matter told Reuters the alliance partners were discussing plans for a closer tie-up in which Nissan would acquire the bulk of the French state's 15 percent stake in Renault. With Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reporting on Monday that Ghosn had been arrested by Tokyo prosecutors on suspicion of under-reporting his salary, the alliance's plans for the future just got more pressing.Writing by Mark PotterRelated Video: Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Nissan Renault

Next Nissan GT-R to take cues from GT-R LM Nismo Le Mans entry

For those wondering why Nissan named its coming Le Mans Prototype the GT-R LM Nismo, colliding the two worlds of sports car and prototype racing, an article in Autocar might have the answer. The deeper union is explained by saying that the next-generation GT-R will use "hybrid technology that will closely align it" with the GT-R LM Nismo.
The point could be further driven home by the fact that the GT-R LM Nismo will begin its FIA endurance racing campaign next year, and the next GT-R is due to debut next year as a 2016 model. The expectation is that it will use a hybrid system possibly dubbed R-Hybrid and perhaps developed by Williams. Just like performance car makers Ferrari and Audi, Nissan wants its racing efforts to pay off with road car technology, company vice president Andy Palmer saying they "want to link technological linkages between future evolutions of the GT-R and evolutions of what we do in LMP1, and the two do go in both directions."
The bigger question is, with the GT-R getting hybrid assistance, will it also get the weight gain that usually comes with it? Enthusiasts would love to see the trend reversed, especially on a car that's already no lightweight.

Will Nissan's Cummins deal upset Ram's marketing mojo? [w/poll]

Ram has used Cummins engines in its heavy duty trucks since 1989, and it is the only pickup truck brand to use products from the Indiana-based engine maker. With the announcement that the next Nissan Titan will also use a Cummins powerplant, and a Nissan spokesman having already said "We will definitely leverage the Cummins brand name," a piece in Automotive News wonders whether the deal will affect the way Ram markets its tie-up with Cummins.
The question really is, how intense is this competition? While it is the first time that trucks from two different brands have used Cummins engines, they'll be two different engines in two different kinds of trucks; Nissan is going to put a 5.0-liter turbodiesel in a non-heavy-duty Titan, Ram only uses its 6.7-liter, inline six-cylinder turbodiesel in heavy-duty offerings. The diesel that Ram will offer in its light-duty, half-ton 1500 is a 3.0-liter V6 EcoDiesel with 240 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque - compared to about 300 hp and 550 lb-ft expected from the Titan's Cummins - and its marketing so far has focused on the fuel economy gains.
If Nissan was going to prove its commitment to the segment, it had to do something compelling. If we're talking about sales competition between Ram and Nissan, Ram has sold 201,633 trucks as of July this year, up 24.2 percent, 31,314 of those sales coming last month; Nissan has sold 10,020 Titans through the end of July, down 21.1 percent, and just 1,168 in July itself. Nissan's new truck boss - who hopped there from Ram - said that buyers have asked for a powerful turbodiesel in something other than a heavy duty pickup, and from what we've read on various comment boards, the pickup truck crowd is excited about Nissan's move.