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Ousted Renault CEO Bollore raised concerns over Ghosn investigation

PARIS — Renault's former chief executive Thierry Bollore, who was ousted in October, had sought to flag alleged conflicts of interest and governance problems at the company's Japanese alliance partner Nissan before his departure, Le Monde reported on Monday. Citing a letter from Oct. 7 addressed to Nissan's board, of which he was member, France's Le Monde newspaper said Bollore had raised questions over the firm's internal investigation surrounding former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn. Nissan and Renault were left reeling by Ghosn's arrest in Tokyo a year ago, on financial misconduct charges which he denies. They have since tried to reboot their strained partnership by revamping their management teams, including by purging them of Ghosn allies and removing people in top jobs at the time of the scandal. Bollore — who took a step up at the French carmaker when Ghosn left even though he was known for his close ties to the alliance founder — was eventually pushed out as Renault's CEO on Oct. 11, days after penning his letter. In comments sent to Reuters, Nissan spokeswoman Azusa Momose denied there were any irregularities in its internal investigation of Ghosn's affairs, and added that the company had reviewed its processes once again following Bollore's letter. "Nissan's independent directors confirmed that the investigation was properly conducted and could be relied on," Momose said. Nissan directors had discussed all the allegations raised by Bollore and the company "concluded that Bollore's concerns were not founded and were based for the most part on inaccurate information and speculation," she added. Bollore said in the letter that he was particularly concerned by the revelation that Nissan had a list of 80 managers implicated in financial dealings similar to the ones attributed to Ghosn. He also raised issues with the chain of command at Nissan, saying some key board members were sometimes kept in the dark on internal matters. Renault, which is still searching for a permanent replacement for Bollore as CEO, had no immediate comment. As well as changing its CEO, Nissan recently demoted senior vice president Hari Nada — a key whistleblower against Ghosn and whose role was also questioned in Bollore's letter — although its internal investigation had found no evidence against the executive. Related Video:

Evatran, Bosch will sell wireless home charger for as low as $1,998*

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, the big news for plug in vehicles is that they can now start to ditch the plug. As expected, the system costs around $3,000 and is available for both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt. For the first 250 customers, though, Evatran is offering $1,000 off the standard price, a 30 percent discount. Deliveries start next month and Evatran says it expects the discounted units to all be snatched up in the first half of the year. The wireless charger charges as quickly as conventional corded systems. Called the Plugless Wireless EV charger, the 240-volt station will be installed by Bosch and needs a specific adapter to be used with the Volt or the Leaf (the Leaf version costs $100 more). So, any two-EV families out there will need to pony up double if there's a Chevy and a Nissan in the garage. Of course, since the Plugless system only works with older Leafs (2010-2012 model years - but with any Volt), any late adopters will not be able to take advantage of the new technology, for now. Evatran says the wireless charger "charges the Volt and Leaf as quickly as conventional corded systems and all vehicle features, such as charge-timers and phone applications, can be used seamlessly with the Plugless system." After the first 250 units, standard prices for the wireless chargers take effect again: $2,998 (Volt) and $3,098 (Leaf). Evatran says it will announce wireless chargers for additional vehicles and model years later this year. Evatran and Bosch offer Promotional Pricing as low as $1,998 to first 250 PLUGLESS™ Wireless EV Charging Customers LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Evatran Group, Inc. ("Evatran"), in partnership with Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, announced today at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show that it is offering reduced promotional pricing to the first 250 customers who opt to Go PLUGLESS with their electric vehicle ("EV") experience. The PLUGLESS system offers a convenient, wireless charging alternative to the repetitive process of unplugging and plugging-in electric vehicles. The reduced pricing includes all charging hardware and is as much as a 30% discount off the system's standard MSRP. The discount is available only to the first 250 customers. Initial shipments of the PLUGLESS system, the first wireless EV charging product in the world available to individual EV drivers, will begin in February 2014.

Nissan posts $6.2 billion annual loss and unveils plan to cut costs

TOKYO — Nissan outlined a new plan on Thursday to become a smaller, more cost-efficient carmaker after the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated a slide in profitability that culminated in its first annual loss in 11 years. Under a new four-year plan, the Japanese manufacturer will slash its production capacity and model range by about a fifth to help cut 300 billion yen from fixed costs. It will shut plants in Spain and Indonesia, leave the South Korean market and pull its Datsun brand from Russia as part of a strategy unveiled on Wednesday to share production globally with its partners Renault and Mitsubishi. "I will make every effort to return Nissan to a growth path," Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said, adding that the company had learned from its past mistakes of chasing global market share at all costs. "We must admit failures and take corrective actions," he said, adding that starting with top-level managers, the company had to break its inward-looking culture which in the past has stymied efforts to deepen cooperation with France's Renault. Uchida said improving the company's cash flow was its biggest challenge. He reiterated that Nissan's cash liquidity was good even though it had negative free cash flow of 641 billion yen in the year ended in March. Nissan declined to give any forecasts for its current financial year which started in April due to the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic. It also declined to give details on how many jobs it was cutting. In what is Nissan's second recovery plan in less than a year, Uchida pledged a return to profitability with a core operating profit margin above 5% and a sustainable global market share of 6%. Nissan posted an annual operating loss of 40.5 billion yen for the year to March 31, its worst performance since 2008/09. Its operating profit margin was -0.4%. The automaker said on Thursday that it sold 4.9 million vehicles last year, up from an earlier estimate of 4.8 million. That was still the second decline in a row and a fall of 11% from the previous period but meant Nissan clung on to its position as Japan's second biggest carmaker, just ahead of Honda and a long way behind Toyota. Pandemic pressure Even before the spread of the novel coronavirus, Nissan's slumping profits had forced it to row back on an aggressive expansion plan pursued by ousted leader Carlos Ghosn. The pandemic has only piled on the urgency to downsize.