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Ghosn: 'We are getting there' on making Nissan Leaf profitable

After 19 months in a row of record sales in the US, the money picture for the Nissan Leaf is steadily improving. To date (well, until the end of September), Nissan has sold 63,944 Leaf EVs in the US and a total of around 140,000 globally. The company produces the electric vehicle in three countries: Japan, the UK and the US and has sold more standard passenger EVs than any other automaker. Add all that up and you get to an EV that is just about to be profitable. "We are getting into positive, which is good for this technology." – Carlos Ghosn At least, it is according to Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault-Nissan, who spoke to reporters at that Paris Motor Show this week. "We are getting there [to Leaf profitability]," Ghosn told Automotive News. "Are we amortizing and depreciating everything we have spent? No. But if you look at margin of profit – the direct cost of the car and the revenue of the car – we are getting into positive, which is good for this technology." Automakers are notoriously closemouthed when it comes to sharing specifics about the higher cost of alternative vehicle technologies compared to standard ICE vehicles. Still, statements like this – as well as a knowledge about how long it took Toyota to make money from the Prius and overall industry amortization – show that Nissan could well be sitting pretty when it comes to keeping EVs around for the long term. Given some of the other news we've heard recently, it's got to be nice to have some stability.

Honda, Nissan and Mazda recalling 3 million vehicles for airbag inflators

Three million more vehicles can be added to the worldwide tally to be repaired for the faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata. Honda, Nissan, and Mazda have all issued recalls to replace the bad part, including about 1.2 million of them in North America. NHTSA has been investigating all three companies, plus Chrysler and Toyota, for potentially affected vehicles.
Honda is recalling roughly 1.02 million Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Element models In North America, built between April 2000 and October 2002. Mazda needs to repair 14,794 units of the RX-8 and Mazda6, and Nissan has 228,000 vehicles in North America to be fixed.
Chrysler is also starting what it calls a "regional field action" to replace the inflators in the 2006 Dodge Charger, according to a company spokesperson. The company says that it has not yet found the problem in any of its vehicles, but it's being done "out of an abundance of caution." The final number of Chargers affected will be announced later this week.

Carlos Ghosn video: 'This is about conspiracy. This is about backstabbing'

TOKYO — Nissan's former Chairman Carlos Ghosn maintained his innocence in a video released by his legal team Tuesday and accused some executives at the Japanese automaker of a "conspiracy" that led to his arrest on financial misconduct allegations. "The first message is that I'm innocent," said Ghosn, wearing a white shirt and dark jacket and speaking calmly in the nearly 10-minute video shown at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo. "This is a conspiracy," he said. "This is not about specific events, this is not about, again, greed, this is not about dictatorship. This is about a plot. This is about conspiracy. This is about backstabbing." His lawyer Junichiro Hironaka said the video was prepared in case Ghosn was not able to speak at a news conference planned for Thursday. Ghosn was arrested last week while out on bail and remains at the Tokyo Detention Center. Ghosn said the executives behind the conspiracy were motivated by what he called "selfish fears," including what they saw as a merger with French alliance partner Renault SA. They mistook his leadership for greed and dictatorship, when he was the biggest defender of Nissan's autonomy, Ghosn said. He also said he was worried about Nissan, wondering whether those executives were really watching out for the company. Hironaka said a section of the video in which Ghosn mentioned names was removed on his legal advice. Nissan Motor Co., while declining to comment on the criminal case, has said an internal investigation has found that Ghosn falsified financial documents to under-report compensation, and that he used Nissan money for personal gain. "Nissan's internal investigation has uncovered substantial evidence of blatantly unethical conduct," company spokesman Nicholas Maxfield said when asked for comment on Ghosn's video. "The company's focus remains on addressing weaknesses in governance that enabled this misconduct." Ghosn's fourth arrest was on a fresh breach of trust allegation based on suspicion that payments from a Nissan subsidiary to an Oman dealership were diverted to a company effectively run by Ghosn. On Monday, Nissan Motor Co. shareholders voted to oust Ghosn from its board and to approve the appointment of French alliance partner Renault SA's Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as Ghosn's replacement. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan.