Pure zero-emission vehicles are still something the CEO is bullish on, despite some growing commentary that electric vehicles are over due to lack of infrastructure, reliability and cost.
On Tuesday Nissan’s CEO spoke
further with the Global Media Center on the yen, Japanese relations with
China, and the year ahead.
Q1: What do you see as Nissan’s biggest opportunities in 2013?
Ghosn: We have a
lot of opportunity in 2013. I would say we have to resume a very
strong growth. Obviously we had in 2012 a reasonable growth.
Unfortunately it should have been much stronger than what we have seen.
But as you know we had some events that really were headwinds in front
of us – the relationship between China and Japan being the biggest one,
where our sales in China were handicapped by it.
In 2013 resuming growth in
China, developing our markets in Russia, particularly with the latest
investment we have done with AvtoVAZ, pushing also our sales in India,
the new plant in Brazil continuing to develop — so I’d say 2013 should
be a year where significant growth should continue.
Q2: Two
headwinds for Nissan have been the strong yen and China, but there are
signs of recovery in each area. How do you assess prospects?
Ghosn: Well I think yes, there are some good
winds in 2013 following these two obstacles. The yen is giving some
signs of little-by-little moving into more neutral territory. Obviously
88 (yen) to the dollar is better than 78 yen to the dollar, but frankly
I consider that unless we reach a 100 yen to the dollar ratio, we will
not be in neutral territory.
In China, yes, the situation is
getting better but we would like frankly a fundamental resolution of
this problem. China is the second largest economy in the world. Japan is
the third largest economy in the world. We cannot be in a situation
where any incident between the two countries can put us back in the
situation that we have known in September and October. Yes, it is a
little bit better, but frankly what we are hoping for, and lobbying for
also, is putting the past behind the two countries and really making a
kind of alliance between the two countries where the economic
relationship will take the center stage to the political relationship.
Q3: With the 2013 Nissan LEAF unveiled, how will this impact EV sales?
Ghosn: Look, I think everything we are doing is
positive for EV sales, but frankly it was predicted because we never had
the strategy by which we will assemble the LEAF and assemble the
batteries in Japan, and ship them all over the world. We knew that we
would need to localize the product to facilitate the expansion, and it
is taking place.
Building cars in the United
States is more efficient and less costly than building cars and shipping
cars from Japan. So that is one of the reasons for which we cut the
price for the consumer, because by making the battery in Tennessee and
assembling the car in Tennessee and doing the motor also in the United
States, it helped us to reduce the price of the car and make the
consumer benefit from it. The consumers are saying it is too expensive,
so we need to respond to these concerns to facilitate expansion. The
LEAF in 2012 – we have an expansion of our car by 22% globally. We sold
22% more LEAFs in 2012 than 2011. In the United States, it was
marginally up 1%.
In 2013 the expansion is going
to be much more significant both in the United States and globally.
Why? Because we are responding to consumers’ concerns. You know
consumers are saying it is too expensive, so we’re cutting the price.
Consumers say “Where do I charge my car?” We are lobbying for cities
and states to develop the charging infrastructure, not only in the
United States but globally. Consumers are worried about autonomy. We are
giving more reliable information about the autonomy. We’re going to a
device allowing it to charge in four hours, and this is a developing
“kaizen” approach.
This technology is a fundamental
technology for our industry. We have taken the leadership. We just
want to make sure that we are putting it mainstream.
Q4. This year marks the 80th
anniversary for Nissan Motor, and in that time the company has been
able to survive and even grow in challenging economic times. What
obstacles are left to climb?
Ghosn: We have many things to achieve. I am very glad that we will be celebrating our 80th
anniversary in good shape. This company, as you know, in 1999 saw a
near-death experience, but since then the transformation has been
spectacular thanks to the tens of thousands of employees who have
engaged into the revival of Nissan and made what Nissan is today. Are we
done? Certainly not, we have a lot of potential for growth.
We have a lot of potential to
make the company much stronger. We have a lot of potential to strengthen
the brand, to make the brand much more remarkable. I’m talking not only
about Nissan brand. I’m talking also about the Infiniti brand. Also, we
are going to bring back Datsun. But now we are doing it without a
handicap, we have no more handicap. We have reestablished the
fundamentals of the company and the fundamentals of the company are very
good.
