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'Zero' chance of Renault taking over Nissan, Mitsubishi, says Ghosn

TOKYO — Renault SA absorbing Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp is not an option as the carmakers look to strengthen their partnership while retaining their autonomy, alliance chairman Carlos Ghosn said on Friday. "Anybody who will ask Nissan and Mitsubishi to become wholly owned subsidiaries of Renault has zero chance of getting a result," Ghosn told shareholders of Mitsubishi Motors at a meeting. He also serves as chief executive of France's Renault. The alliance was the world's top-selling passenger vehicle maker in 2017, but as the global auto industry consolidates, it is looking to strengthen its position before the 64-year-old Ghosn, its main architect, retires in the coming years after overseeing the partnership for nearly 20 years. We reported in March that the carmakers were discussing a deeper tie-up, which could see the French government, a major shareholder in Renault, give up influence at Renault and the French carmaker relinquish control over Nissan. The three automakers have a unique partnership designed to leverage their combined scale to save on costs including R&D, parts procurement and production to better compete with rivals Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. They are also interlinked by their shareholding structure. Renault holds 43.4 percent of shares in Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault, with no voting rights in a partnership that began in 1999. Mitsubishi Motors joined the alliance in 2016 after Nissan took a 34 percent controlling stake in the smaller automaker. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has said the alliance is not discussing a "full merger." Ghosn said that while the focus of the alliance was to sell more cars and increase profitability by reducing unnecessary duplication of processes, he wanted each of the three automakers to maintain their independence, which differentiated the group from Toyota and Volkswagen. "We need to work together ... to find a system by which what we have today, which is working very well, can continue in the future no matter who is leading the alliance," he said. "We need to prove that this is sustainable five years down the road, 10 years down the road, 15 years down the road." In a Figaro interview published last week, Ghosn was upbeat about the prospect of securing a new deal for the alliance despite its extreme political sensitivity in France and Japan, saying a plan would need to be announced "well before" the end of his four-year term at the helm of Renault in 2022.

Nissan ZEOD RC finds nothing but trouble at 2014 Le Mans

Audi came away a big winner at this year's Le Mans competition, but Nissan has at least one thing to celebrate. The Pyrrhic victory apparently presages Nissan giving up on the gas-electric race car for Le Mans 2015. Before the race this weekend, the prototype ZEOD RC hybrid race car was doing quite well. In fact, given the way things turned out, Nissan's keen to mention that team engineers managed to get the car to complete a lap on electric power and hit a target speed of 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour) on the Mulsanne Straight during testing. ZEOD RC stands for Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car. "The race was obviously very disappointing" – Wolfgang Reip Things didn't go so well once the real race started. The problem for the Deltawing-esque prototype – which is powered by a 1.5-liter gas ending putting out 400 horsepower and a pair of 110-kW electric motors – was that something broke in the transmission after just 23 minutes and five laps. Driver Wolfgang Reip put his best spin on the hybrid's collapse: "The race was obviously very disappointing but having got a taste of Le Mans now, I can't wait to get back." If Reip does return with Nissan, it will likely be in a more traditional Le Mons racer. The ZEOD RC was part of the LM P2 class, but Nissan says that, "For Le Mans 2015, Nissan will return to the LM P1 class." You can watch the full warm-up electric lap in a video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Nissan ZEOD RC heroic electric lap followed by heartbreak Amazing morning warm-up result after all-nighter by crew "New tech" car halted by "old tech" issue Nissan breaks new ground in electric vehicles LE MANS, France – Nissan's assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours may have ended early, but the revolutionary Nissan ZEOD RC electric prototype still leaves Le Mans having reached its historic goals of hitting 300 km/h on the Mulsanne Straight and recording a complete lap of Le Mans on electric power only. The unique prototype – which features both internal combustion and electric power sources – reached its first target during Thursday night qualifying when Satoshi Motoyama exceeded 300 km/h before the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Nissan's other key goal was to complete an entire 8.5-mile lap of Le Mans on pure electric power. GT Academy winner Wolfgang Reip was at the wheel when the team achieved this goal during the morning warm-up.

Nissan Leaf resale value expected to take a hit

Nissan Leaf resale values may take a tumble, according to Kelley Blue Book. The vehicle evaluation resource said the 2013 Nissan Leaf will retain around 35 percent of its MSRP after three years; that's down five percent from what KBB gave the 2012 Leaf at the end of 2011. Automotive News reports KBB adjusted the EV's residual value prediction because the used transaction prices for the 2011 model have stuck around 35 percent for the past few months due to relatively cheap gasoline, not to mention the fact that Nissan trimmed the electric's MSRP from $36,050 to $29,650 before the $7,500 tax credit.
Since used buyers are often motivated by more practical buying concerns than early adopters or those wanting to curb their carbon emissions, they may not be willing to pay more for an EV. Meanwhile, early Leaf models are now coming to auction, abandoned by rental car companies after customers shunned them in favor of traditional internal-combustion vehicles. Many of those at auction have less than 10,000 miles and carry an average transaction price of just $13,700.