AUTONEWS

Why Carlos Ghosn could be Stellantis’s salvation army?

In 1998, Chrysler morphed into Daimler-Chrysler, which morphed into FCA, and now, for some reason, it’s called Stellantis. Whatever the name, the smallest member of the Detroit Big Three is apparently in permanent need of a savior. For Stellantis, the highs are stratospheric, but the lows are somewhere in the deepest reaches of the ocean.

Lee Iacocca fixed the problem. Sergio Marchionne fixed the problem. But despite being a Ghosn protégé, Carlos Tavares made things worse. Fortunately for Stellantis, though, his successor is hiding in plain sight. But he also has a habit of hiding elsewhere.

In an audio equipment case presumably too large to be inspected by airport security, Carlos Ghosn fled Japan on the night of December 29, 2019, after spending Christmas under house arrest. International courts have charged the former leader of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi with a series of strictly financial crimes, some of which are still being tried.

But Ghosn is an international automotive genius. He has not been formally convicted of any crime. He is innocent until proven guilty. He is the best man to fix Stellantis.

It is easy to forget Ghosn’s steady stream of successes in the shadow of his dramatic escape. He began his automotive career as an entry-level engineer at Michelin in 1978. By 1990, he was running its North American operations. Soon after, he became a top executive at the newly privatized Renault, and after its merger with Nissan, he became CEO of the latter automaker in June 2001.

But Ghosn is an international auto genius. He has not been formally convicted of any crime. He is innocent until proven guilty. He is the best man to fix Stellantis.

He brought Nissan back from the brink. In 1999, the Japanese automaker was barely profitable and had more than $20 billion in debt. By 2002, the debt was eliminated. By 2003, Nissan had some of the best margins in the entire industry. By 2005, it had increased its global sales by more than a million units.

The Nissan Leaf was launched two years before the Tesla Model S. Ghosn saw the writing on the wall about electrification like no other auto executive. In 2017, Nissan sold twice as many electric vehicles as Elon Musk’s California startup, and the “hypotheticals” for Nissan’s electrification efforts if Ghosn remained at the helm were positively tantalizing.

In the immediate aftermath of Ghosn’s departure from Nissan, the company entered a death spiral. With the exception of 2023, sales have fallen every year since he stepped down as CEO in 2017. Its 2023 earnings were similarly modest, and needless to say, it failed to stave off a desperate merger attempt with Honda. And this historic alliance between two long-standing Japanese automakers is not a strategic advantage; Nissan is struggling to survive.

Ghosn will probably never return to a Japanese brand, but the Stellantis group seems like a great fit. The executive speaks fluent English, French, and Portuguese. During his tenure at Renault and Nissan, he traveled the world to put out fires and seek out opportunities, something Carlos Tavares struggled with, to say the least. He has extensive experience in the North American, European and Asian markets, the latter of which is extremely relevant.

He is arguably one of the most visionary and successful global automotive leaders of the past two decades. But these triumphs do not mean that tapping him to lead Stellantis is an easy task.

A 2019 settlement with the SEC barred him from serving as a director of a public company for 10 years. He is also still accused of financial crimes in other countries. At the very least, he would have to be pardoned by the new President Trump—perhaps sympathetic as a convicted felon—and settle lawsuits in France and Japan. His appointment would be one of the most audacious moves in the history of the automotive industry.

It would be an absurd idea if we were not living in one of the most volatile eras in the automotive industry. The auto executive is the shot in the arm Stellantis needs. Forget the baggage—even if he’s guilty of everything various governments and companies accuse him of, he owes them nothing but money.

Carlos Ghosn deserves another chance, and the opportunity is right in front of Stellantis.

Author: Peter Holderith