Speaking with BusinessWeek, Ghosn explained that the greatest potential is in the global economy, especially in markets such as China and India, while U.S. sales are likely to continue slide. Ghosn expects this year’s U.S. auto sales to fall around the 15 million mark and predicts next year’s result to be even lower.
He went on to describe that consumers in the U.S. will be continue to move towards cheaper cars with smaller engines. “The real battle going forward is to make profit on these smaller vehicles,” he explained. As for exporting low cost cars from China or India for sale in the U.S., Ghosn says no. “We have better ways of supplying North America from our plants here, and in Mexico and South America,” he revealed.
To help boost sales of its small vehicles, Nissan has partnered with Chrysler and will supply its Versa hatch to the American carmaker. At the same time, it has scaled back production of its fullsize Titan pickup and will instead source a similar model from Chrysler to fill the gap.
In the future Ghosn expects electric vehicles to be a big factor. He confirmed the launch of an electric vehicle in the U.S. by 2010 and revealed there will be a full portfolio of EVs for both Renault and Nissan. You can read the full interview with Ghosn by clicking here.