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Mercedes pickup could have Nissan DNA

Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance are already close partners. Now it seems that the upcoming Mercedes-Benz midsize pickup might have a little Nissan DNA in it, too. Or maybe not, depending on how you interpret comments by Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. "I don't want anybody to think that because they announced a pickup truck, they have to make it with us. Not at all," Ghosn said at the New York Auto Show, according to Automotive News. "They are completely free to do it by themselves, to do it with somebody else, etc., and also, or to do it with us." The Mercedes Vans division is responsible for the truck's development, and the pickup is aimed at the popular global midsize segment against vehicles like the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. There's no mention of any plans for the model in North America. Instead, Mercedes wants to focus on Latin America, South Africa, Australia and Europe for a launch slated before 2020. Ghosn was quite clear there was no decision either way as of yet. "Is this something that can eventually be on the table? I told you, everything is on the table between us," he said, according to Automotive News. If the two companies do decide to collaborate on a midsize truck, the timing would seem perfect. Nissan completed development of its NP300 Navara in 2014, and the automaker has been at work at least evaluating powertrains for the next Frontier possibly for 2019. Related Video:

Ghosn: Nissan-Renault strife and his arrest can be traced back to Macron

PARIS — Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said on Wednesday that a surprise corporate move, orchestrated five years ago by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was then economy minister, soured relations between Renault and Nissan and contributed to his ouster. Ghosn, the former head of the car alliance, said Nissan executives and Japanese officials were shocked by a 2015 decision by the French government to increase its voting rights at Renault. "This left a big bitterness. Not only with the management of Nissan, but also the government of Japan," Ghosn told reporters, although he did not name Macron. "And this is where the problem started." Macron's office did not respond to a request for comment. In April 2015, as a 37-year-old minister with then-unknown presidential ambitions, Macron ordered a surprise increase in the state's stake in Renault designed to secure double voting rights. The overnight move gave the French state a blocking minority in Renault, which in turn controlled Nissan via its 43.4 percent stake in the Japanese firm. According to French and Japanese sources, that rattled the Japanese side of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which feared a national champion was falling under the control of the French government. In the ensuing eight-month boardroom fight between Macron's ministry and Hiroto Saikawa — Nissan's second-in-command at the time — Ghosn sees the seeds of what he says grew into a conspiracy to have him arrested and oust him from control of Nissan. The 65-year-old fled Japan last month as he awaited trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. He is now in Lebanon, where he spoke to international media on Wednesday. "There started to be some kind of defiance from our Japanese colleagues, not only about the alliance but also about me," Ghosn told reporters. "And some of our Japanese friends thought: The only way to get rid of the influence of Renault on Nissan is to get rid of him," he added. "Unfortunately, they were right." Following Ghosn's arrest in November 2018, Nissan executives said that said governance had been eroded by RenaultÂ’s control.

Ex-Green Beret arrested in Ghosn's escape has lived a life of danger

This Dec. 30, 2019, image from security camera video shows Michael L. Taylor, center, and George-Antoine Zayek at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey. Taylor, a former Green Beret, and his son, Peter Taylor, 27, were arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts on charges they smuggled Nissan ex-Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box in December 2019, while he awaited trial there on financial misconduct charges. / AP   Decades before a security camera caught Michael Taylor coming off a jet that was carrying one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives, the former Green Beret had a hard-earned reputation for taking on dicey assignments. Over the years, Taylor had been hired by parents to rescue abducted children. He went undercover for the FBI to sting a Massachusetts drug gang. And he worked as a military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, an assignment that landed him in a Utah jail in a federal fraud case. So when Taylor was linked to the December escape of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn from Japan, where the executive awaited trial on financial misconduct charges, some in U.S. military and legal circles immediately recognized the name. Taylor has “gotten himself involved in situations that most people would never even think of, dangerous situations, but for all the right reasons,” Paul Kelly, a former federal prosecutor in Boston who has known the security consultant since the early 1990s, said earlier this year. “Was I surprised when I read the story that he may have been involved in what took place in Japan? No, not at all.” Wednesday, after months as fugitives, Taylor, 59, and his son, Peter, 27, were arrested in Massachusetts on charges accusing them of hiding Ghosn in a shipping case drilled with air holes and smuggling him out of Japan on a chartered jet. Investigators were still seeking George-Antoine Zayek, a Lebanese-born colleague of Taylor. “He is the most all-American man I know,” TaylorÂ’s assistant, Barbara Auterio, wrote to a federal judge before his sentencing in 2015. “His favorite song is the national anthem.” Kelly, now serving as the attorney for the Taylors, said they plan to challenge JapanÂ’s extradition request “on several legal and factual grounds.” “Michael Taylor is a distinguished veteran and patriot, and both he and his son deserve a full and fair hearing regarding these issues,” Kelly said in an email.