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Internal Nissan emails reportedly corroborate Ghosn's claim of a setup

An internal email trail reportedly supports former boss Carlos Ghosn's claim that Nissan orchestrated his ouster. The leaked emails have been corroborated by sources familiar with their contents, Bloomberg reports.  Emails going back to February 2018, a year before his arrest, allegedly describe a deliberate and multi-pronged effort — a "methodical campaign," Bloomberg said — to remove Ghosn from the company and in so doing, put Nissan in position to negotiate a more favorable relationship with alliance partner Renault.  The initial effort was apparently triggered by Ghosn's announcement in 2018 that he wanted to further intertwine Renault and Nissan, eventually to the point where their integration would be irreversible. Former Ghosn aide Hari Nada, who would appear as the whistleblower figure who outed Ghosn for his alleged financial misconduct, allegedly suggested to a Nissan senior manager that company executives should move to "neutralize his initiatives before itÂ’s too late." Nada would later recommend the termination of the agreement governing the Renault-Nissan Alliance. This would have granted Nissan broader freedom to purchase stake in Renault (or even ultimately take it over entirely), and reduce the French automaker's influence over Nissan's ability to choose its own executives.  The next day, Ghosn was arrested at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct, including personal use of company money and under-reporting of income.  Ghosn, who was released and re-arrested multiple times, fled Japan illegally in January, taking refuge in his former home of Lebanon. Since, Japanese authorities have pushed for his arrest but have been foiled by the lack of an extradition agreement between the two countries.       Government/Legal Rumormill Nissan Renault

Are you the next Nissan Frontier?

A reader of the Phillippine site Autoindustriya.com sent in what appear to be naked spy photos of the pickup that Nissan recently teased first in photo then in video. The shots, one taken from the front and one from the back, have been found on the Nissan Navara Club Thailand forum. The details in the two photos, one from the front and one from the back, match up with the details we can make out from the teaser video, lending credence to the idea that this is indeed the next Nissan Navara, which is essentially the Frontier in overseas markets. Nissan US has reportedly disavowed this as our next Frontier, though; the mysterious photo on Twitter was put there by Nissan Thailand, supposedly the location of these two trucks.
The only other detail submitted with the images is that there's a 2.5-liter turbodiesel under the hood putting out 187 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque, running through either a seven-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual. The reveal is scheduled for June 11, which is when we should know a lot more about the Navara and how much it is or isn't indicative of what we'll get with the next Frontier, a vehicle we're still not expecting for some time.

Ford and Lincoln design honcho leaves to head Nissan North America design

Last Friday, David Woodhouse suddenly resigned from his dual positions as Ford's director of global strategic design and director of Lincoln design. In a post not long after leaving, he praised the efforts of his former team over the past six years he headed design at Lincoln. Among other products, that crew gave us the redesigned Navigator, the Continental concept and production sedan, and the Aviator concept and production crossover. Car Design News reports Woodhouse traded Michigan for California, taking the role of VP at Nissan Design America in San Diego. He officially assumes the position July 1, and will also serve on the Japanese automaker's Global Nissan Design Management Committee. Woodhouse has spent more than 25 years in the design department, starting with BMW and work on the Mini and Range Rover brands, followed by a brief stint with Cadillac of Europe. For the past 20 years he's been with Ford, coming on board with the Ford's former luxury arm known as the Premier Automotive Group — Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo and Lincoln. He became Lincoln's design director in 2013, introducing the world to the design language labeled "quiet flight." He described the language's details as "anti-wedge body gestures, S-curves wherever possible, and an emphasis on horizontal lines at every opportunity to create leaner, longer, wider emphasis on the exteriors, and create equilibrium, balance, and calmness on the interiors." A much shorter way to describe it is: revitalized Lincolns. The U.S. luxury maker's new and overhauled products have been praised for their lines by critics and by paying customers. The brand's done so well it's hard to remember when the MKC concept was a revelation, and that goes on Woodhouse's resume, too. That's some special juju to take to Nissan, where Woodhouse will lead both Nissan and Infiniti design focused on the North American region. Nissan has a solid if uninspiring lineup that sells well here, while Infiniti, as the luxury brand, is the bigger issue. Infiniti sedans glide on the contrails of a design language more than 10 years old. The money-making crossovers and SUVs haven't made a splash in about the same time, since the long-ago FX45. Nissan's plan to update 70 percent of its lineup over the next few years and Infiniti's transition to an all-electric brand makes right now the perfect time to break into riveting designs for the street. Woodhouse replaces Taro Ueda, who moves into a global role with Nissan.