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Ghosn: Nissan-Renault strife and his arrest can be traced back to Macron

PARIS — Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said on Wednesday that a surprise corporate move, orchestrated five years ago by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was then economy minister, soured relations between Renault and Nissan and contributed to his ouster. Ghosn, the former head of the car alliance, said Nissan executives and Japanese officials were shocked by a 2015 decision by the French government to increase its voting rights at Renault. "This left a big bitterness. Not only with the management of Nissan, but also the government of Japan," Ghosn told reporters, although he did not name Macron. "And this is where the problem started." Macron's office did not respond to a request for comment. In April 2015, as a 37-year-old minister with then-unknown presidential ambitions, Macron ordered a surprise increase in the state's stake in Renault designed to secure double voting rights. The overnight move gave the French state a blocking minority in Renault, which in turn controlled Nissan via its 43.4 percent stake in the Japanese firm. According to French and Japanese sources, that rattled the Japanese side of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which feared a national champion was falling under the control of the French government. In the ensuing eight-month boardroom fight between Macron's ministry and Hiroto Saikawa — Nissan's second-in-command at the time — Ghosn sees the seeds of what he says grew into a conspiracy to have him arrested and oust him from control of Nissan. The 65-year-old fled Japan last month as he awaited trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. He is now in Lebanon, where he spoke to international media on Wednesday. "There started to be some kind of defiance from our Japanese colleagues, not only about the alliance but also about me," Ghosn told reporters. "And some of our Japanese friends thought: The only way to get rid of the influence of Renault on Nissan is to get rid of him," he added. "Unfortunately, they were right." Following Ghosn's arrest in November 2018, Nissan executives said that said governance had been eroded by RenaultÂ’s control.

Carlos Ghosn 'surprised' by reports of French international arrest warrant

PARIS - Carlos Ghosn, the former car executive at the helm of Renault and Nissan, was "surprised" by earlier media reports which stated that French prosecutors had issued an international arrest for him, said a spokesperson for Ghosn. "This is surprising, Ghosn has always co-operated with French authorities," a spokesperson for Ghosn told Reuters. The spokesperson for Ghosn was reacting after the Wall Street Journal and French media reported that French prosecutors had issued an international arrest warrant for Ghosn. An investigating magistrate issued five international arrest warrants against Ghosn and the current owners or former directors of the Omani company Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, a vehicle distributor in Oman, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said to The Wall Street Journal. They allege Ghosn funneled millions of dollars of Renault funds through the Omani car distributor for his personal use, including for the purchase of a 120-foot yacht. The local prosecutor for Nanterre could not be immediately reached for comment. Ghosn told Reuters in an interview last year that he was prepared for a lengthy process to clear his name with French authorities, and vowed to challenge an Interpol warrant that is barring him from travel outside of Lebanon.

Nismo GT-R poised to be fastest Nissan ever

For almost every year since the Nissan GT-R first debuted, Nissan has been figuring out how to cram more power under the hood or give it 911-like quickness around the Nürburgring. Looking to create a brand image for its performance arm, we already knew that a hotter, Nismo-branded GT-R was in the works, but it seems some details may have leaked regarding this new Nismo GT-R.
While little has been spoken of this Super GT-R since February, Top Gear is reporting that Nismo is planning to make improvements to the coupe's power, handing and styling - three things that we're sure few have complained about since 2009. What could this mean for the GT-R? According to the article, Nismo could be looking to raise horsepower from the current 545-hp mark to more than 570 hp, and handling upgrades could give the car a 'Ring lap time of seven minutes and 22 seconds, which as Top Gear points out, is four seconds quicker than the new 911 GT3.