Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says Nissan is “boring and mediocre”

It seems that embattled former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is keen to add more chapters to the inevitable Netflix or Amazon Prime series about his incredible split with the company he once led. 

Following his successful Hollywood escape plot to escape trial to become a fugitive hiding in Lebanon’s amnesty, Ghosn has held numerous interviews with the media where he’s keenly talked about Nissan’s decline. 

In his latest interview with Fox Business, Ghosn has reiterated that Nissan is on a decline, labelling the Japanese firm “boring” and “mediocre”. The interview comes as the former chief exec promotes his upcoming book, Broken Alliances.

“Nissan came back to what it was in 1999, unfortunately, after 19 years of work, as a boring and mediocre car company, which is going to be struggling to try to find its place in the car industry,” he said. 

“We were building a system where [Nissan] would be a part of something completely new with a lot of technical innovation.”

Ghosn says that his new book will tell his side of the story, presumably arguing that Nissan’s side of the story (the one that says he’s guilty of financial misconduct charges) is incorrect. 

“The Japanese government and some Japanese executives thought that this balance existing between the French and the Japanese in this alliance would not be respected. […] The French government was acting in a way to have a much bigger share in their say of this alliance,” he said. 

“This is the kind of plot organized by people where at the end of the day you discover there is no winner. Japan lost its reputation. The French lost. Nissan lost, Renault lost, Mitsubishi lost, the shareholders lost.”

Ghosn added that Nissan’s former executive vice president Greg Kelly is still “a hostage of the system”. Kelly is on trial for allegedly turning a blind eye to Ghosn’s ‘compensation’.

“[Kelly is still] being tried on a single charge of complicity. It’s a joke,” he said.

“He’s still waiting for a judgment decision that I understand will take place in March 2022, which is three years after the arrest, just to tell you how artificial this move was in order to stop the merger and development of this group of companies.”