While the chattering classes clamor for a fully-realized Nissan/Renault hookup with Chrysler, Nissault CEO Carlos Ghosn is in no rush to commit further to the U.S. market. In an interview with Business Week, the Brazilian/Lebanese wunderkind say the the American new car market isn't climbing out of the crapper anytime soon. "This year in the U.S. is going to be down, between 15 million and 15.5 million units for total vehicles [including light commercial vehicles]. Next year I think will be down as well.. I don't think auto sales will really stabilize until 2010. The U.S. auto market is not going to be great again. It has all the characteristics of a mature market." Ghosn also predicts (among other things) the increased prominence of small cars in the U.S., the rise of electric cars (including a Renault/Nissan for sale stateside by 2010), the resurgence of the U.S. as an exporter of commercial vehicles, and the unlikeliness of Chinese and Indian vehicles for sale in stateside. Lottery numbers upon request.
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Where’s the Renault diesel already?
Wow, what with the credit crunch, jobs being cut, Detroit being in trouble, the global warming crowd encouraging people to keep their cars for longer (less of a carbon footprint) and rising raw materials prices (subsequently increasing car prices) how did Carlos Ghosn know that the US car market was not going to be good and that small cars and eletric cars would sell big in the United States(?)
N.B Please note that the “car market stablising” and Renault-Nissan eletric car are just 2 more events for the already event packed 2010!
Well, he is right on a few points. I wouldn’t say the US market has fully matured, but just that the kinds of vehicles that appeal to the masses has shifted causing most of the automakers to rethink what Americans want nowadays. And no way are Chinese or Indian cars (a rebadged Jag-Rover?) gonna make the ocean crossing over here unless their crash worthiness has been thoroughly looked over.
I don’t know if my experience reflects the balance of American sentiment on cars….but I’m sitting it out, waiting to see how the new diesels and hybrids work out in the next 2-3 years. I’ve got a great 10-year-old car that depreciates less than $500/yr, which more than makes up for fuel usage compared to a more efficient new car’s depreciation ($3k-$5k/yr). I suspect a lot of people are simply waiting it out, as well.
In the year two-thousaaaannd and 10, in the yeeeeaaar twooo-thousaaaaaand and te-ennn, Tesla Motors launches the Whitestar hybrid sedan vaporizing Prius sales within minutes of its arrival due to its vastly superior performance, efficiency, and reliability claims, Rick Wagoner unceramoniously retires and returns all of his personal wealth to GM in a selfless move to return the company to profitability, Carlos Ghosn and Kirk Kerkorkian purchase Tata Motors and sell off the Nano platform to the world’s new economy car leader…Porsche.
Lottery numbers please.
@ ash78
I hear that – my faithful 22-yr-old is still pushing hard, and believe it or not, appreciating in value – it doubled last year!!
By the time I choose to sell my car, I’ll be making profit, AND getting an average MPG of current i-4 sedans of the same size in a v6.
I had a lot of lunchtime conversations back in 2007 where we all played the equivalent of ‘guess the sales for 2008’?
My two predictions were that sales would go down to the 14.8 to 14.9 million level and that Chrysler’s sales would dip 20%.
Oh well. If there had only been a cigar involved in that bet. I’d be smoking it all the way to Havana.