AUTONEWS

Nissan still reaps the rewards of Carlos Ghosn's management

Recently, the new version of the Frontier pick-up has been presented globally, but the origin of the new Japanese pick-up platform has hardly been trumpeted yet. Well let's go back to the time when Carlos Ghosn was Nissan's chief executive; Renault and Nissan signed an agreement for a global alliance in 1999-At that time Nissan was going through a strong crisis that threatened its existence, and thanks to Ghosn's management way it managed to get out of the turmoil and move on...Now let's go back to the origin of the current Frontier platform. The origin of this platform was announced in a real definitive way by Renault; in 2016, the first medium-sized pick-up of the french brand (Renault Alaskan) was presented, after the euphoria of the launch, the project did not bear fruit for the french conlomerate because it did not sell well and due to the tough emissions rules in europe, Renault was forced to pay a heavy fine due to the high level of pollutants emitted by the pick-up engine...After that episode there was another hard and definitive setback when the Renault group had to close the factory in Spain that produced the model.

Shortly thereafter, Mercedes had the idea of ​​having a medium pick-up in its line of vehicles, and from there came the extinct Mercedes X-Class. -The three-pointed star pick-up was highly praised by the specialized media at the time, but after the euphoria already in 2019, Mercedes withdrew from the project claiming that the economic scenario at the time forced it to take such an attitude-This episode is considered the biggest failure of the automaker in recent years.

Nissan do Brasil urgently needed to change the Frontier platform because the model sold in 2016 was already out of date, in view of this scenario the twelfth generation of the pickup was presented in Brazil for the first time at the end of 2016 at the 29th Motor Show Automóvel São Paulo-It is worth remembering that at that time Carlos Ghosn was the chief executive of Nissan

In 2018 Frontier will be manufactured in Argentina, sharing a line and platform with Renault Alaskan and Mercedes X-Class, which will also be sold in Brazil. Both were shown at international events at that time.

Recently the ''new'' Frontier was presented for the North American market; because the model that circulated there was still from the 2004 generation, once again the Japanese automaker managed to combine the useful with the pleasant using the platform of the extinct Mercedes X Class. Carlos Ghosn at the company, his legacy lives on more than ever.

by Kelvin James(k77c49@gmail.com)