According to the fallen boss of the group, “Renault is a group that has a fundamental problem of profitability”. At Renault today, “we have very poor results and a lot of talk,” said the businessman.
Former Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn, in September 2020. (AFP/ANWAR AMRO)
Renault’s “poor” results, “dropping” of the French government … In an interview with Parisian / Today in France published this weekend, the ex-boss of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance Carlos Ghosn returned to the results of his former group, his resentment towards the French government but also his incredible escape from Japan in December 2019.
“It was a very risky operation,” said Carlos Ghosn, who fled this country where he was charged and placed under house arrest for charges of embezzlement hidden in a trunk transported in the hold of a private plane. “I was curled up, in the dark. But listening, I knew what phase of the plan I was in. (…) In the hold, I was not afraid of running out of oxygen, it was a bit chilly, but from what I had been through, that wasn’t what I was going to worry regarding. I was so outraged at the way I was being treated that there was no room for fear,” the former Renault boss told the daily.
“France let me down”
Carlos Ghosn did not hide his bitterness vis-à-vis the French government and more particularly once morest the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire. “The first stab came from the Japanese, but the fatal stab was delivered by the French government,” said the ex-Renault boss. As for Bruno Le Maire, “it was he who ordered the tax audit. It was he who gave a clear instruction to two members of Renault’s board of directors: ‘We abandon Carlos Ghosn, we can no longer support'”, said the businessman, who took refuge in Lebanon. “Did Bruno Le Maire make the decision alone? Did he receive orders? I don’t know. But he is at the center of it all. These are not accusations, these are facts, with witnesses. Tongues will loosen over time and we will know why France let me go, “said Carlos Ghosn.
The former boss of the Renault-Nissan Alliance also takes a particularly critical look at his former group. “Look at Renault’s results since 2012, when I was at the helm. Revenue growth was strong, we have never made so many profits, nor so many people! In 2017, we were number a global one, with the contribution of Nissan and Mitsubishi.(…) I helped Renault grow for thirteen years, the French State was present at Renault, I obtained exceptional results and today , some have the indecency to say that the lousy results of 2019, 2020 and 2021 are because of me?” protested Carlos Ghosn.
“Renault is only a shadow of itself”
“The truth is that a world number 1 has become a fragile little manufacturer. It pains me to see that Renault is no more than a shadow of itself. To see that Renault is today now kept on a leash by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which granted it a PGE, explaining that it is thanks to this that the company survives.With a management which, three years later, attributes all its difficulties to a so-called race for volumes. They might have found attacks a little finer. Frankly, I find that indecent”, denounced the businessman while the “race for volumes”, strategy carried by the former boss , is today criticized by the group.
“When we say that the Alliance (Renault-Nissan) is doing well, we make fun of the world…”, continued Carlos Ghosn, considering that “Renault is a group which has a fundamental problem of profitability, which thanks the state for having helped him and who ultimately is one of three members in an alliance that no longer has any substance”. At Renault today, “we have very poor results and a lot of talk,” he added.
