Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan , doesn’t expect a full market recovery until at least 2011. Although some regions – such as the United States – could begin to see recovery as soon as next year, Ghosn expects 2010, on the whole, to be “as difficult as 2009″.
Ghosn expects the U.S. market to show signs of recovery by early next year, but predicts other mature markets, namely Japan and Europe, to stay in a depressed state until the early part of 2011. “I’m expecting 2010 to be as difficult as 2009. I am not expecting an immediate recovery,” Ghosn told the French Europe 1 radio station.
Ghosn also stressed the importance of gradual phase outs of government scrappage programs. So-called cash for clunkers programs have seen tremendous success in Europe – with such programs in place in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK – with some markets seeing a 40 percent boost in new car sales. Ghosn warns that if such programs are suddenly cut off, it could cause a devastating shock to the market.
The U.S.’ cash for clunkers program is set to kick off on July 23rd and run through November.
