Renault-Nissan head honcho Carlos Ghosn is at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and has notched two years under his belt as chair of the Automotive Committee.
From Davos, Ghosn made several comments regarding the state of the automotive market. Regarding BRICS — an acronym for the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — Ghosn says Renault-Nissan is still sees much room for growth. In western Europe, there are 500 cars for every 1,000 people. For Russia, that number is 300 per 1,000, Brazil has 200, China has just over 100 and India has just 25.
On whether the drop in oil prices will affect sales of electric vehicles (the Nissan Leaf is the best-selling EV in the world), Ghosn says that there will be a drop from those who buy EVs primarily for fuel-saving purposes. However, while the price of oil is unpredictable, ever stricter emissions controls are clearly in the future. That is especially true in large markets like China and the US, so no matter how far the price of oil falls, zero-emissions cars will still have to be a major strategy for any automaker wanting to play in those markets.
The WEC is a who’s who conference of 2,500 of the world’s most influential movers and shakers — titans of industry, heads of state and media gather to discuss the state of the world and shape the policy that affects much of the planet. However, the gathering has also received criticism for privileging an elite group of moneyed individuals.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance, which also owns Russian automaker AvtoVaz, builds one out of every 10 cars sold in the world. Ghosn’s committee serves in an advisory role for many policy makers, and as such as holds a lot of sway over governments when it comes to motorization.
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