The U.S. auto market was down nearly 40 percent through the first five months of the year but Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn expects the market to show signs of recovery by the end of the year. Ghosn’s comments echo Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s optimism for a market uptick by the end of 2009.
Although Ghosn expects the U.S. market to pick up during the second half of the year, he doesn’t foresee the European market picking back up until at least 2011. “I don’t see it in Europe before 2011. I see 2010 at the same level of 2009, with ups and downs,” Ghosn told the International Herald Tribune.
“If scrapping incentives were to continue for a while, it would be a different story. Stopping the incentives would have a recessionary impact.”
Some European countries have seen tremendous success with scrappage programs. In Germany, new car sales are up about 40 percent, largely due to scrapping incentives. The U.S. recently passed its own scrappage program.
Lamborghini revealed last week that it doesn’t expect the market to recover fully until 2011.
