Renault Rules Out U.S. Return, Fears It Wouldn’t Be Competitive
The company looks toward Asia for growth.
Khodrocar - The Renault-Nissan Alliance already has a strong footing in the United States by offering models from Nissan, Infiniti, and Mitsubishi. However, don’t expect Renault-branded vehicles to join the American range anytime soon, according to a new interview with the automaker’s CEO Carlos Ghosn.
"No, I'm not thinking about that. There is no opportunity for it in this midterm plan,” Ghosn said about launching Renault in the U.S. in a discussion with Automotive News. "Going to the U.S. and selling a few cars is easy. You need to have a real strategy of products and marketing. The U.S. is a very competitive market.”
Instead, Ghosn will focus on growing in Asia with a goal of eventually selling 14 million vehicles a year worldwide by the end of the 2022 fiscal year. "Most of it will come from China,” Ghosn told Automotive News. "As you know, Nissan is deploying its product strategy in China and Renault is starting in China and Mitsubishi is in full growth in China.”
Ghosn intends to integrate Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi’s vehicles closer together by sharing four platforms among the brands. They’ll account for subcompact, compact, midsize, and electric vehicles. In addition, the company will share its powerplants among three quarters of its models across the brands – up from a quarter currently.
From January through June 2017, the Renault-Nissan Alliance was the world’s largest automaker with over 5.2 million deliveries in that period, which beat Volkswagen Group by around 400,000 units and Toyota by about 600,000.
Renault’s French rival, Peugeot Citroën, has started a tentative process of entering the North American market. For example, the company named an executive in charge of the region in April 2017. A further step came in October when the firm launched a car and bicycle sharing app called Free2Move in Seattle, Washington. It lets users make reservations from existing services like Car2go, Zipcar, Spin, Limebike, and Ofo.
Peugeot left the American market in 1991, and Citroën hasn’t been around there since the 1970s.
"No, I'm not thinking about that. There is no opportunity for it in this midterm plan,” Ghosn said about launching Renault in the U.S. in a discussion with Automotive News. "Going to the U.S. and selling a few cars is easy. You need to have a real strategy of products and marketing. The U.S. is a very competitive market.”
Instead, Ghosn will focus on growing in Asia with a goal of eventually selling 14 million vehicles a year worldwide by the end of the 2022 fiscal year. "Most of it will come from China,” Ghosn told Automotive News. "As you know, Nissan is deploying its product strategy in China and Renault is starting in China and Mitsubishi is in full growth in China.”
Ghosn intends to integrate Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi’s vehicles closer together by sharing four platforms among the brands. They’ll account for subcompact, compact, midsize, and electric vehicles. In addition, the company will share its powerplants among three quarters of its models across the brands – up from a quarter currently.
From January through June 2017, the Renault-Nissan Alliance was the world’s largest automaker with over 5.2 million deliveries in that period, which beat Volkswagen Group by around 400,000 units and Toyota by about 600,000.
Renault’s French rival, Peugeot Citroën, has started a tentative process of entering the North American market. For example, the company named an executive in charge of the region in April 2017. A further step came in October when the firm launched a car and bicycle sharing app called Free2Move in Seattle, Washington. It lets users make reservations from existing services like Car2go, Zipcar, Spin, Limebike, and Ofo.
Peugeot left the American market in 1991, and Citroën hasn’t been around there since the 1970s.
Source: Motor1.com
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