The gloom and doom surrounding the US motor industry has been overdone despite the troubles of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, according to Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan and Renault, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The paper said Ghosn remains positive about the US motor industry and points to its history of revivals.
Ghosn, credited with turning the Japanese car maker around when he joined in 1999, reportedly said he disagreed with analysts predicting a long decline in the industry.
“Many people are discounting the efforts or the capacity of the Big Three to recover. I am not part of them,” he told a news conference in Tokyo, the Telegraph said.
“Our industry has a history of revivals. I still think that there is no hopeless case, that any company can turn round very quickly in our industry.”
The Daily Telegraph said Ghosn also warned that steelmakers could be shutting themselves out of business if prices continue to rise – Nissan was forced to stop production last year because of lack of steel.
“Carbon fibre is an alternative to steel, maybe not massive. There are two limitations: first costs, second is that we are traditionally an industry of steel,” he reportedly said.
“But if the cost of steel continues to go up, obviously this is going to be an objective incentive which is going to mobilise the companies to shift from steel to other commodities,” Ghosn said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
