Nissan corporate news

ABG:

Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn leaves Japan
He has arrived in Lebanon, where he holds citizenship

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https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/30/carlos-ghosn-leaves-japan-for-lebanon/

Carlos Ghosn, the ousted boss of the Renault-Nissan carmaking alliance who was awaiting trial in Japan, flew into Lebanon on Monday evening, France's Les Echos newspaper reported.

The newspaper cited its own unnamed source and a report in Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour. There was no immediate confirmation from official sources.

It was unclear how Ghosn, who holds both French and Lebanese citizenship, would have been able to leave Japan, where he has been under strict court-imposed restrictions on his movements. As Financial Times reports, it's unclear whether Ghosn has struck a deal for his release, or if he somehow escaped house arrest. . . .

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GRA said:

ABG:

Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn leaves Japan
He has arrived in Lebanon, where he holds citizenship

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https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/30/carlos-ghosn-leaves-japan-for-lebanon/

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As we say in the UK, "He done a runner"!

In any event, it looks like he lost and whoever or whatever wanted him out won.

goldbrick said:

In any event, it looks like he lost and whoever or whatever wanted him out won.

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Yah maybe. I’m willing to bet this isn’t over. I see a movie in the making. Escape out of Japan.

mwalsh said:

GRA said:

ABG:

Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn leaves Japan
He has arrived in Lebanon, where he holds citizenship

Click to expand...

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/30/carlos-ghosn-leaves-japan-for-lebanon/

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As we say in the UK, "He done a runner"!

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'E's scarpered! :lol:

Clearly he was jones'ing real hard for some good Moghrabieh!

So Nissan's new plans for electric vehicles is to eliminate the complication of the cord to charge the car. Instead you can now plug in your ePowered car with a gasoline hose instead.

They are calling it ePower.

e-POWER borrows from the EV technology perfected in the Nissan Leaf, adding a gasoline engine to charge the high-output battery when necessary. This eliminates the need for an external charger while offering the same high output as an EV.

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https://electrek.co/2020/01/02/did-a-nissan-exec-really-just-say-that-ev-charging-is-too-difficult-for-women/

Nissan seems lost since the departure of Ghosn.

Nissan Group reports December 2019 and 2019 calendar year U.S. sales
https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/release-103b1d052fdcd89776fbcfb58d00a83f-nissan-group-reports-december-2019-and-2019-calendar-year-us-sales

Looks they they had a really bad month and a not so good year in terms of US sales. I wonder if there were significantly lower fleet sales.

They should let Carlos run the company from Lebanon.

They desperately need leadership and vision. Concept cars are not going to get the job done. They will need to invest and lose money for a while to catch up.

palmermd said:

So Nissan's new plans for electric vehicles is to eliminate the complication of the cord to charge the car. Instead you can now plug in your ePowered car with a gasoline hose instead.

They are calling it ePower.

e-POWER borrows from the EV technology perfected in the Nissan Leaf, adding a gasoline engine to charge the high-output battery when necessary. This eliminates the need for an external charger while offering the same high output as an EV.

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https://electrek.co/2020/01/02/did-a-nissan-exec-really-just-say-that-ev-charging-is-too-difficult-for-women/

Nissan seems lost since the departure of Ghosn.

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e-Power vehicles have been selling for awhile. I saw one at Nissan HQ when I dropped by in late 2017. Haven't been following but they at least initially did well in Japan: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bertelschmitt/2017/02/06/in-a-surprise-upset-nissans-e-powered-note-tops-japans-charts/ (from Feb 2017).

Will be in Europe: https://global.nissannews.com/ja-JP/releases/release-5227ef5dbab9f1e0871062f0c0018d6c-nissan-to-introduce-e-power-models-in-europe?source=nng which claims
"Currently, e-POWER is available in the Note and Serena models in Japan. More than 70% of Note sales and almost half of Serena sales in the country are e-POWER versions."

At least it gives Nissan some economies of scale and lets them recoup R&D and tooling costs for their electric motors and Leaf's shifter. Uses the same EM57 motor as the Leaf apparently (https://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/11/20161102-epower.html) and the shifter looks the same too.

Look at where the Nissan Note (aka Versa Note in the US) is in terms of sales in Japan.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/japan/2017-full-year-japan-best-selling-car-models-mini-cars/
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/japan/2018-full-year-japan-best-selling-car-models-and-mini-cars/
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/japan/2019-half-year-japan-best-selling-car-brands-models-and-mini-cars/
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/japan/2019-q3-japan-best-selling-car-brands-models-and-minicars/ (Toyota Aqua is aka Prius c in the US)

BEVs don't seem popular at all in Japan judging by my trips there in 2015, 2017 and 2019 (have been there 7x in total for vacation since 2001). In my last trip a few months ago (as I mentioned in the Tokyo Motor 2019 show thread), I recall only seeing a single Model 3 and 2 gen 1 Leafs in the wild.

RonDawg and I were both in Japan in 2015 and met up briefly at Tokyo Motor Show and for dinner at least once afterward. His itinerary was different than mine but he also confirmed seeing few BEVs while he was there.

Nissan denies rumours of plan to divorce from Renault
https://www.france24.com/en/20200114-nissan-denies-rumours-of-plan-to-divorce-end-partnership-from-renault -- this was making the news on Bloomberg channel a few days back so Nissan issued a denial: https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/release-20dde025ab692d0aa1b89590010062a8-200114-00-e.

Nissan Punishes More Managers After 10,000-Hour Ghosn Probe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-16/nissan-punishes-3-more-for-misconduct-after-10-000-hour-probe?srnd=markets-vp

cwerdna said:

<snip>

Nissan Punishes More Managers After 10,000-Hour Ghosn Probe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-16/nissan-punishes-3-more-for-misconduct-after-10-000-hour-probe?srnd=markets-vp

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Are they going to cut off one of their little fingers? Somehow seems appropriate.

Renault, Nissan chief engineers to meet, revive R&D projects: sources
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/renault-nissan-chief-engineers-meet-171330581.html

'Do or die': Nissan to lay off thousands, close plants in $4.4 billion plan
Cutting models, curbing Ghosn's expansionism in face of a sales slump
https://www.autoblog.com/2020/01/28/nissan-cuts-layoffs/

Nissan may report first quarterly loss since March 2009: sources
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nissan-may-report-first-quarterly-091358548.html

Scandal-hit Nissan sinks into red ink as sales plummet
Reports quarterly loss of $237 million, with sales down 18%
https://www.autoblog.com/2020/02/13/nissan-earnings-loss/

Truly a shame there aren't options available on NSANY.

coleafrado said:

Truly a shame there aren't options available on NSANY.

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When a stock has basically little to no volatility, options have little to no value. That results is no options market for the stock.

https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/nsany

In the last month, the Nissan stock only changed by about $1.00.

Nissan CEO tells angry shareholders he is ready to be sacked if no turnaround
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nissan-ceo-sees-earnings-cashflow-014056936.html

Makoto Uchida, who took over the top job in December, put his job on the line at a raucous shareholders' meeting, where he faced demands ranging from cutting executive pay to offering a bounty to bring Ghosn back to Japan after he fled to Lebanon.
...
Before it began, some shareholders demanded more clarity about Uchida's plan.

"I just want to know what the plan for recovery is. At the moment, the share price has dropped again, and the value of the company has plummeted," said a 70-year-old former employee who owns shares in the company.

"If this is the situation, part of me thinks that we would be better off with Ghosn ... If we don't get a clearer vision of the path the company is taking, it will be a worry."

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So...they want to kidnap Ghosn, and drag him back to Japan...to run Nissan again...??? I guess that would be a pretty harsh sentence for him.

LeftieBiker said:

So...they want to kidnap Ghosn, and drag him back to Japan...to run Nissan again...??? I guess that would be a pretty harsh sentence for him.

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LOL! Actually, there was story I should've posted from this morning. Was probably https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nissan-shareholders-angry-ghosn-scandal-032010440.html. I think the ones that want Ghosn back in Japan want him to stand trial.

As for bringing Ghosn back to run Nissan again... uhh... that's obviously fantasy land. I think the odds of that are near 0 unless Nissan and Japan drop all charges, apologize while on their knees like TEPCO folks (deep bow isn't enough), grovel, promise him some sort of immunity along with some Japanese govt watchdog installed so he can't be in this situation again. And, this assumes that Ghosn would actually want to take a chance again. Ha! Obviously, Ghosn would need to clean house of traitors.

Also, there's are these:
Furious shareholders blast Nissan bosses
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/furious-shareholders-blast-nissan-bosses-033602884.html

Moody's downgrades Renault to 'junk' status, capping disastrous year without Ghosn - sorta Nissan related
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/19/business/corporate-business/renault-credit-rating/