As chairman of the Automotive Group at last month’s Davos Summit in Switzerland, the head of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn
03 Feb 2015 | 2593 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
As chairman of the Automotive Group at last month’s Davos Summit in Switzerland, the head of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn spoke about the prospects of the BRICS, current crude prices and why the future will see more women in senior positions in the auto sector.
Do you think further expansion ...
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As chairman of the Automotive Group at last month’s Davos Summit in Switzerland, the head of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn spoke about the prospects of the BRICS, current crude prices and why the future will see more women in senior positions in the auto sector.
Do you think further expansion in the BRICS is still a good strategy for the Alliance?
Yes, I think it is a very good idea because once you make an investment, you are there for the long term. If you look at the long term prospects of the BRICS and the emerging markets in general, their prospects for the longer term are still very good, the fundamentals are still good.
When we talk about China, Russia, Brazil or India, these are rich countries heavily populated with a very sound and healthy demography and where the level of motorisation is still extremely low. Compared to the average European country which is about 500 cars for 1000 residents, it is 300 in Russia, 200 in Brazil, a little above 100 in China and in India, about 25. So one knows that there is still a lot of growth coming.
We also know that emerging markets or at least some of them would go through leaner growth, not go to steady, predictable smooth, for time to time you will have corrections. That is what you are seeing in Russia and in Brazil. We have seen it less in India but India has seen growth coming back at the end of 2014 and we feel very good about 2015. While China has slowed, it is still significant growth, 7 percent growth of GDP forecast for next year is not so bad.
Do you think a further decline of oil prices will hurt electric vehicles sales?
I don’t think it will slow down, which means people who are buying EV mainly for economic reasons may keep away from this but you have plenty of consumers buying EV for other reasons. Though the price of oil is unpredictable, nobody has predicted last year that this would be this level of oil prices today; nobody knows where oil prices will go in a year or two.
But what is predictable is the fact that the regulations on emissions are going to be tougher in the different markets where we are present. So our EV strategy is not only to be not much dependent on oil or cost of oil but also to allow us to meet stringent regulation on emissions that are happening and will be happening in the future. More and more carmakers are coming to EVs and they will continue to build and sell EVs even though the price of oil is going down only because that nobody thinks that that the price of oil going to remain where it is for the long term but at the same time also because without EVs and zero emission vehicles, it would very difficult to meet the regulations on emission particularly in China and US.
What do you think the industry can do better to identify and promote more women to key management roles?
I think it is important that we offer more opportunities, hire more women, make sure that in the succession planning we are facilitating, helping and planning to have more women handling different responsibilities.
This is going to happen. The trend is unmistakably going into a specific direction and I think with everything we would be doing, all the car makers are doing, you are going to see more and more women in the executive positions. It will take some time because you need to change some perceptions that this industry mainly for men which is not true because as you know more than 60-65 per cent of customers in this industry are mainly female. We need to ensure that our products, technology are female-friendly. For this, we need much more executive power from the female side.
This year Davos marks your second year as chairman of the Automotive Group? What have you found most valuable during your tenure?
I think the fact that at least at the level of the industry we are talking to each other, not talking about competitive issues but talking about issues which are common to the entire industry is a good thing. Here we have the opportunity to come with one voice, guiding, advising the different governments about the limits of technology or the hopes that technology can enable us to do. I do feel that the industry is behaving in a manner which is much more responsible today and that is the benefit of meetings such as this one.