Carlos Ghosn slams the little player Renault

Carlos Ghosn, former iconic head of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, depicts a Renault Group in full regression.

Invited this Monday, May 5, on BFM Business, Ghosn unleashed his sharpest arrows against the French automaker with barely concealed jubilation. It takes the confidence of a Carlos Ghosn, in exile and carrying a string of scandals behind him, to engage in such an exercise, but it remains nonetheless entertaining.

“Renault has returned to what it was before 1999, that is, a small European manufacturer, well-managed within that framework, but without a global scope,” he declared with a nearly predatory smile. The financial results for 2024? Respectable, but far from the standards of yesteryear. Declining turnover, anemia profits, stock market capitalization halved… All signs allowing Ghosn to shoot at the ambulance while giving a nearly condescending compliment to Luca de Meo, current CEO, for managing a “little Renault.”

Carlos Ghosn dares everything

As for the end of the Renault-Nissan alliance, Ghosn dismissed the matter flatly: “This situation was predictable in 2020.” According to him, Renault must urgently forge serious alliances to survive in a global market dominated by China, the United States, and, to a lesser extent, Europe. Without presence in the first two, Ghosn sees the brand’s future as precarious.

True to his provocative style, he did not hesitate to point out BYD as an example. “BYD in 2006-2007 wasn’t selling a single car, wasn’t producing a single car; it was a battery manufacturer. Since then, they’ve experienced extraordinary growth thanks notably to electric cars, and today they sell 4 million cars!” The message is clear: it’s time to get out of the rut with value-added partnerships, like the one started with Geely.

And to top it all off, Ghosn mentioned his spectacular escape from Japan in 2018, where, accused of financial misconduct, he escaped under wildly improbable circumstances to join Lebanon. According to him, this affair was nothing but a plot orchestrated by Nissan executives hostile to his merger plans with Fiat Chrysler. Apparently, Ghosn hasn’t said his last word, and his revenge is savored cold… in light of Renault’s setbacks.

READ ALSO: Carlos Ghosn Strikes Down the Honda Nissan Alliance