VW will have to come through us – Ghosn

Volkswagen used the Frankfurt motor show to announce it was back-flipping its way into an electric-car future, but Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn delivering a blunt warning to the Germans – you’ll have to come through us if you want to be number one.

Martin Winterkorn, the boss of the German industrial giant told journalists that Volkswagen had belatedly ranged the focus of 70,000 of its employees purely on drivetrain electrification, with the ambition of becoming the world’s leading electric car-maker by 2018.

Winterkorn insisted the company would have 14 electric and hybrid cars on sale by 2014, including those wearing Audi, Seat and Skoda badges. While he was adamant Volkswagen would dominate the world’s electric-car market in five years, he admitted that plug-in hybrids had far greater sales potential.

But Volkswagen’s ambitions seemed to draw out a mix of hard-edged response and playful bemusement from the boss of Renault-Nissan, which already sells the Renault Zoe and Twizy and Nissan LEAF.

“I have been told that we have some competition to become the largest maker of electric cars in the world,” Ghosn admitted. “I have been told this competition is going to come from a company that last year said electric power was only good for golf carts.

“By 2018, this rival suggests it will be the biggest. I applaud that but I will challenge it because we are already the leader and are showing leadership.

“They want to be number one? We are number one and we will stay there.”

Renault-Nissan became the first car-maker to sell more than 100,000 zero-emission cars when it crossed the threshold in July this year. That figure gives Renault-Nissan more electric-car volume than all other car-makers combined, with the LEAF alone accounting for 71,000 sales since it debuted in 2010.

Although his initial target of 10 per cent of global vehicle sales appears optimistic, Ghosn remains enthusiastic about electric cars, insisting there will be 1.5 million sold by 2016.

“Yes, I am bullish about electric cars. It will represent 10 per cent of the offer in the market whenever and wherever governments show a minimum of interest in electric cars and their infrastructure.

“The point is that all car-makers are going to come to electric cars because we can’t do without it. Mark my words: they will all come. There will be some time between now and then but this industry can’t prosper without electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

“This is going to be re-energised by the competition and most importantly the public believes in it.

“Tesla has a market capitalisation of, what, $20 billion for something like 19,000 cars a year? That’s probably a record for a cap-to-volume ratio (at around $1US million per car sold) but it shows the public believes in electric cars.”

Ghosn’s response delivered a stinging rebuke to the Volkswagen chief, who was already defending his company against claims that it had missed the first wave of the push towards electric cars.

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