Word: toyotas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...still drives himself to work—but in a Toyota Prius...
None of this has gone un-detected by investors. While Nissan boasts a market capitalization of about $53 billion--more than triple that of General Motors--the stock has fallen well behind shares of Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda in the past two years. And some of the air has come out of the chief's reputation. "Ghosn's strategy has been all about cost cutting," says Koji Endo, an analyst with Credit Suisse in Tokyo. "He needs to prove that he can bring real growth to the company's top line. We've yet to see that...
...even a dynamo like Ghosn, successfully run two carmakers? He could keep his hands full with Renault alone. Like other European carmakers, Renault is grappling with high labor costs, slim profit margins and surging competition on its home turf from Toyota. Yet Ghosn, characteristically, has set ambitious goals for Renault, aiming to add new models, lift profit margins to 6% in 2009, from 2.5% today, and sell an additional 800,000 cars a year. "Everybody knows what I mean by commitment," he says, "and I'm very serious about that...
That's why the new Altima and Sentra look more evolutionary than revolutionary. Analysts too are worried that Nissan is losing its styling edge, ceding ground to Honda and Toyota (whose Camry was named Motor Trend's 2007 Car of the Year). "Once you get into the trap of saying 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,' that's very dangerous," says John Casesa, an auto-industry consultant. "Nissan has to innovate to grow...
Nissan may be losing the technology race too. The company plans to launch its first hybrid model next year, about a decade after Toyota put hybrids on the market. Nissan's tardiness is no accident; Ghosn has long believed that hybrids are money pits for manufacturers. Still does. "I'm skeptical of the business case," he says. Nonetheless, Nissan is playing catch-up in a hot automotive area. Hybrid sales overall are booming, up 23% this year, and even Porsche and BMW are getting into...