Former Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn has criticized Nissan in a new interview while promoting his book, Broken Alliances.
While speaking with Fox Business, Ghosn says that many within Nissan didn’t like the idea of him pushing for greater collaboration within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance and instead wanted more autonomy. Since his departure and arrest, Ghosn suggested that it has been all downhill for the Japanese automaker.
“Nissan came back to what it was in 1999, unfortunately, after 19 years of work, as a boring and mediocre car company, which is going to be struggling to try to find its place in the car industry,” he said. “We were building a system where this company would be a part of something completely new with a lot of technical innovation.”
Read More: Awaiting Court Verdict, Ex-Nissan Exec Greg Kelly Insists He Did Nothing Wrong In Carlos Ghosn Case
Discussing his new book, Ghosn said it tells his side of the story, rather than the story that has been pushed by Nissan since his arrest.
“The Japanese government and some Japanese executives thought that this balance existing between the French and the Japanese in this alliance would not be respected,” Ghosn said, adding that “the French government was acting in a way to have a much bigger share in their say of this alliance.”
Ghosn went on to explain that he had become so desperate after watching the behavior of the judges and prosecutors while he was in custody in Japan, that he decided to initiate his daring escape. While he did manage to escape, he left behind former executive vice president of Nissan, Greg Kelly, who is currently on trial for allegedly failing to fully report Ghosn’s compensation.
“Greg Kelly is still in Japan as a hostage of the system, being tried on a single charge of complicity… It’s a joke,” Ghosn explained. “He’s still waiting for a judgment decision that I understand will take place in March 2022, which is three years after the arrest, just to tell you how artificial this move was in order to stop the merger and development of this group of companies.”