Ghosn predicts a brighter road ahead at Frankfurt

Car mogul declares dog days are over in the motor industry

From left: Laurens van den Acker, senior vice president, corporate design, and Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Renault with the Renault Initiale concept car  at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
From left: Laurens van den Acker, senior vice president, corporate design, and Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Renault with the Renault Initiale concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

When one man says a crisis has passed, you may well question his opinion, but when that one man is Carlos Ghosn (above), the head of both Renault and Nissan, then you do tend to sit up and take notice.

Speaking at last week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Ghosn said that he reckons that the worst of the European car market decline is over and that the market will now begin to expand again, albeit at a very slow rate, for the next few years.

Ghosn also said that while the US, China, India and Russia are still set for expansions in car sales, markets such as Japan, Indonesia and – rather surprisingly – Brazil are looking more doubtful.