Ghosn on China: "Don't panic yet"

The stuttering Chinese economy has been causing some major alarm in the boardrooms of car-makers most heavily exposed to it.

Yet although Carlos Ghosn admits to being worried about short-term prospects in the PRC, the Renault-Nissan CEO remains confident of the country’s long-term importance.

“It depends on your timeframe. Am I worried about the next three weeks? Then yes, it is up and down and crazy.” he told journalists at a reception before the Detroit motor show.

"That’s not our horizon though, our horizon is the next three years, the next five years, and then I’m not worried.”

Ghosn claims to remain confident that China’s demand for mobility will ensure the long-term prospects of those car-makers heavily exposed to the market.

“Today in China you have, on average, 100 cars per 1000 residents,” he explained.

"That number is 800 in the United States and in Europe around 500. No matter how you stretch it nobody believes that the Chinese are going to remain at 100 or even 200 per 1000 residents, knowing that Brazil is at 200, Russia is at 300 et cetera.

"So there is a fundamental growth coming in China. The Chinese car market increased last year by five per cent, in a very mediocre year.

"That’s nearly as much as the United States in what we were told was a very good year.”