The Man Who Revived Renault and Nissan Wants to Save Mitsubishi

When Carlos Ghosn was brought in to rescue loss-ridden Renault in 1996, it took him only a year to turn the French carmaker around. The 20 billion French francs of expense cuts he imposed earned him the nickname Le Cost Killer. Three years later, Ghosn was sent to revive Renault partner Nissan Motor, which had been unprofitable in seven of the previous eight years and was the most indebted carmaker in the world. By fiscal 2003 it had become the globe’s most profitable major automaker. His revival of Nissan remains one of the industry’s extraordinary success stories. Ghosn even became the subject of a comic book series that reached 300,000 Japanese readers in monthly installments in 2001.

Now he’s being called in to play superhero again, as part of Nissan’s agreement in May to pay $2.2 billion for a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors, which saw its shares plunge 40 percent after a scandal broke in April. The peripatetic Ghosn—he’s chief executive officer of both Yokohama-based Nissan and France-headquartered Renault—will need to quickly clean up Mitsubishi’s image, which has been tainted by the company’s recent admission that for more than two decades it used improper fuel-economy testing methods and since 2011 has overstated the fuel efficiency of its minicars sold in Japan. He’ll also likely have to get out his scissors again, to eliminate overlap in purchasing and vehicle development.