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Nissan CEO Uchida says he's willing to be fired if turnaround fails

YOKOHAMA — Nissan's new chief executive said on Tuesday he would accept being fired if he fails to turn around Japan's second biggest automaker which is grappling with plunging sales in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn. Makoto Uchida, who took over the top job in December, put his job on the line at the automaker's shareholders' meeting, where he faced demands ranging from cutting executive pay to offering a bounty to bring Ghosn back to Japan after he fled to Lebanon. Nissan's worsening performance has heaped pressure on Uchida, formerly Nissan's China chief who became its third CEO since September, to come up with aggressive steps to revive the company. On Tuesday, Uchida, who was repeatedly heckled by shareholders, said he was ready to face dismissal if he failed to improve profitability at the company, which is on course to post its worst annual operating profit in 11 years. "We will make sure that we steer the company in an effective way so that it is visible in the eyes of viewers. I will commit to this: if the circumstances remain uncertain you can fire me immediately," he said. Uchida, 53, did not give a timeframe for improving Nissan's performance. The new boss must prove to the board he can accelerate cost-cutting and rebuild profits at the 86-year-old Japanese giant, and that he has the right strategy to repair its partnership with France's Renault, sources have told Reuters. Uchida pleaded with shareholders to be patient while he comes up with a plan by May to recover from crumbling profits and a corporate shake-up following Ghosn's arrest in Japan in late 2018 over financial misconduct charges. "If you can be patient a little bit longer, on a day-to-day basis you will be able to sense we are changing," he said. Ahead of the meeting, some shareholders demanded more clarity about Uchida's plan. "I just want to know what the plan for recovery is. At the moment, the share price has dropped again, and the value of the company has plummeted," said a 70-year-old former employee who owns shares in the company. "If this is the situation, part of me thinks that we would be better off with Ghosn ... If we don't get a clearer vision of the path the company is taking, it will be a worry." Nissan's shares are trading around their lowest level in more than a decade following its latest earnings.

Next-gen Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV gets more power all over

Looks like it's official — the U.S. will finally get the upgraded Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV that's been on sale in Europe and Japan since late 2018. AutoGuide perused documents Mitsubishi filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2021 product lineup. The paperwork shows a 2.4-liter engine with 126 horsepower replacing the 2.0-liter with 117 hp in the current U.S.-market Outlander plug-in hybrid. We've expected the engine change for a while, but we didn't have a horsepower rating before. The version on sale in Europe gets 133 hp from the 2.4-liter Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder, while promising "higher torque, smoother operation, and overall higher efficiency." We'll get the 13.8-kWh battery, up from the 12-kWh unit currently installed, and the rear electric motor gets bumped up to 93 hp, same as overseas. The e-motor on the front axle holds steady at 80 hp. Unless Mitsubishi has model-year shenanigans in mind, the documents describe the next-gen Outlander that's been promised for debut later this year. It will ride on a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance platform, expected to be the same architecture shared with the next-gen 2021 Nissan Rogue. The current Outlander and Rogue are just 0.3 inches apart, and both are expected to grow in size. The new Outlander's exterior will glean cues from the Engelberg Tourer concept (shown below) like vertically-oriented headlights, a reshaped greenhouse, and a larger rear roof spoiler. If Mitsubishi carries over the rest of the upgrades afforded the international Outlander PHEV versions, we're in for a more powerful generator, and new Sport and Snow modes. The suspension and 4WD Lock were also bolstered on the current crossover, but with an all-new generation, we'd expect thorough overhauls in hardware and software. The real prize will be finding out how much EV range the next plug-in hybrid Outlander promises beyond the 22 miles available on the current model. On Japan's testing cycle, the new powertrain extended all-electric driving from 37.8 miles to 40.4 miles. Mitsubishi Engelberg Tourer Concept View 10 Photos Related Video:    

Employee warned Mitsubishi execs about mileage cheating in 2005

A damning report from the committee brought in to investigate Mitsubishi's alleged fuel economy fixing scandal has revealed a new employee stepped forward and implored the company to play it straight on its mileage data... Eleven years ago. The employee, identified in the report as F, pushed for honesty during a company workshop in February 2005, The Asahi Shimbun reports. The then-new worker told 20 company officials, including senior members of the performance testing department, that the way Mitsubishi measured fuel economy was different from the way government's method. Instead of acting on F's protests, officials said they had no memory of them, the report claims. The four-person committee, made up of lawyers and industry experts, isn't buying the excuse. "It is difficult to accept their explanations that they have no recollections because a new employee pointing out such a problem must have had a (strong) impact," the report read. But F's comments weren't the only internal sign that Mitsubishi allegedly ignored. In a 2011 questionnaire, multiple employees submitted responses claiming that the company had been falsifying data. But according to the committee's report, Mitsubishi's development department issued a report denying there was even a problem, which the company's execs accepted without question. According to The Asahi Shimbun, Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko revealed that an internal investigation – which also denied F's remarks – acknowledged that the company hadn't followed government rules regarding fuel economy measurements since 1991. "We lacked unity needed to detect problems within the company and to solve them," Masuko-san said, backing up the committee report's claim that the company was divided. "From now on, we need to decide how to change our way of thinking." Related Video: News Source: The Asahi Shimbun via Motor TrendImage Credit: Toru Hanai / Reuters Government/Legal Green Mitsubishi Fuel Efficiency scandal