The big interview

* Renault-Nissan Alliance boss * What does the future hold? * From electric cars to UK-production...

The big interview

Carlos Ghosn

Chairman and chief executive officer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

What Car? Common platforms, shared parts, co-development and economies of scale are all efficient ways of producing cars, but how do you ensure that Renault and Nissan maintain separate identities? How important is that?

Carlos Ghosn Globally, across the Alliance we have five brands: Dacia, Infiniti, Nissan, Renault and Renault Samsung. We are careful to ensure that each of these brands has a unique vision, product range and way of communicating. Even though the five brands are part of the Alliance, we don't hold back in allowing each brand to develop what is right for its customers and right for the individual brands.

What Car? How would you explain the difference between Renault and Nissan to the man on the street?

Carlos Ghosn Renault promises affordability, safety, quality and respect for the environment with a design flair that links each of the products together.
Nissan brings bold, distinctive designs and a passion for driving that is embodied in vehicles such as the GT-R, 370Z, and Patrol.

Both Renault and Nissan share a commitment to high quality and safety and very soon will share the leadership of mass-marketed electric vehicles.

What Car? Do you want the Alliance to become the number-one global car company?

Carlos Ghosn With sales of more than six million vehicles a year, we already have the size to be competitive in the global car market. Our focus is not to pursue volume leadership, but to leverage the benefits of size through intelligent use of scale. If I identified where we have our biggest ambitions, it would be in areas such as quality and zero-emission leadership.