I don't know what it might mean for the future of EVs in Japan or the EU, but Carlos Ghosn has slipped out of Japan despite being under heavily guarded house arrest.
The story reads like something from a B-movie. It was supposedly planned by his Lebanese wife. He hid in a musical instrument case (maybe a double bass case?) after a private concert in his house in Japan. He flew out of a small local Japanese airport, and arrived in Istanbul via private plane. >From there he flew to Lebanon, entering with a French passport, even though all 3 of his passports had been confiscated in Japan. He's now in Beirut and has released a statement in which he said that he will "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed." Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan, so he's probably safe there. Somehow I doubt that he'll be pushing EVs again any time soon, but I guess one never knows. Ghosn was being held in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, including under-reporting his income and shifting his own personal financial losses to Nissan. Some have suggested that he was "railroaded" because Nissan executives expected him to try to merge Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. Now we'll probably never know what really happened. As far as the whole affair's effect on EVs, my guess is that Ghosn's proposed integration of the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe on a common platfrom may not transpire after all, or at least will be delayed. In fact the updated 2020 Zoe is still a separate vehicle. That's just a guess, though. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
