Bloomberg reports:
Renault SA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn agreed to make development of upscale cars for French factories a “priority” as the government steps up its influence in the wake of a botched spy investigation.
Renault, based in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, named Carlos Tavares as Ghosn’s deputy late yesterday. The French state, the carmaker’s biggest shareholder with a 15 percent stake, made support for the appointment conditional on strategy changes, including taking a stronger lead in its alliance with Nissan Motor Co., people familiar with the situation said.
“If it’s this hard just to get your man in place, it suggests we’ll see more, rather than less, government influence going forward,” London-based Credit Suisse analyst Erich Hauser said. France is a “relatively small shareholder with a disproportionate say over strategy, which has to be a concern for other investors.”
…Ghosn said he intends to be “more present in France from now on,” in an interview published today in French daily Le Parisien and confirmed by Renault.
In the face of such (continued) humiliation at the hands of a minority government partner, one has to admit that America’s auto bailout has been an relatively hands-off affair. Context is important after all (although to be perfectly fair, Renault did embarrass the French government with that “spy scandal”). Besides, it sounds like the brave French pols are simply out to avenge the sad death of the Vel Satis, so hey, at least the French might get the epically weird luxury sedan to end all epically weird luxury sedans out of the deal.
“the brave French pols are simply out to avenge the sad death of the Vel Satis,”
Didn’t Toyota already do this with the Lexus hybrid?
And isn’t Ford heading down the same road with their compact Lincoln “concept”?
How much owns the Ford family in Ford? 15% isn’t a minor stake in a company this large
15% shouldn’t allow you to dictate strategy. 20% doesn’t allow the state of Lower Saxony to dictate to VW (influence, maybe, dictate, no).
The Ford Family owns stock with 60% of the voting power regardless of how many shares of the publicly traded class B stock there are.
Some shrewd timing to take their voting power from 40% to 60% while their two biggest competitor-partners (UAW link) were undergoing protected reorganization.
One big reason for the continuous decline of France’s importance in the world over the last century is its lack of respect for simple principles of Economics…
As seen in their GDP per capita which where 100 years ago much closer than they re now. Oh wait, that isn’t true.
Renault still exist because the French government took it over and unlike British of American governments they can run companies
Heh.
I wanna see Renault’s answer to the Phaeton. Not gonna be pretty.
Someone once wrote that the Phaeton was born of the need of VW execs to stop attending the German Automaker’s Assn. in Passats while the Daimler guys arrived in S600 and the Bimmer guys in 760iL.
So, is Sarkozy tired of riding around in Peugeot 508 or Citroen C6? Poor guy.
VW executives have their choice of Audis, Bentleys, Bugattis and Lamborghinis to tool around in. No need for them to travel by Passat.
Doesn’t Citroen already make upscale French cars? I haven’t kept track of them closely since they left the US market.
That would be the 2005-vintage C6.But Wikipedia says Jacque Chirac liked it, and I’m guessing that makes it a bit dated for Monsieur Bruni… plus Sandouville needs work and who wants their “Metropolis” imported from China?
French car makers make luxury cars for the French president. I believe that is their whole luxury market
Why bother with Renault? Why not order Citroen to reintroduce a faithful “continuation” of the DS21? Wasn’t that voted the “most beautiful car” in the world by all the top designers?
Poor Renault saddled with Nissan hope they steer clear of Nissan powertrains and their awful cvt transmissions Citroen already build luxury cars as do Peugeot why force renault out of their comfort zone
Renault’s powertrains were garbage before Nissan came along; crap fuel efficiency and terrible reliability.
Renault is still using 4 speed automatics (as are Peugeot and Citroen); Nissan’s CVT would be an upgrade at this point.
In Europe nobody uses an automatic. It is as rare as a stick in America but at least a stick is manly
Renault already has an overpriced flagship that no one buys: the Lattitude.
They really don’t need another one.
Isn’t Samsung supposed to make the luxury cars?
Until that picture, I never noticed how Sarkozy has an uncanny resemblance to creepy NY congressman Anthony Weiner of “Weinergate” fame. Why do these guys get all the hot girls?