Carlos Ghosn: the Machiavelli of the motor industry

Carlos Ghosn, aka “Le Cost Killer”, managed to resuscitate Renault and Nissan in the 1990s and 2000s. But can he stay ahead of the game in the era of electric and self-driving cars? Jane Lewis reports.

902-Ghosn-634

Le Cost Killer, Carlos Ghosn
(Image credit: 2018 Anadolu Agency)

Famously known as "Le Cost Killer", Carlos Ghosn has long enjoyed celebrity status in the car business for dramatically restoring the fortunes of first Renault and then Nissan following near-death experiences in the 1990s.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.