Many other auto brands are pinning their hopes for global gains on a continued strengthening of the US market and their position in it. So why not Nissan and its Infiniti luxury brand? The chiefs of both brands are expressing their intentions to leapfrog other marques in the next few years in large part by persuading more Americans to buy them.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that he has ordered his team to double Nissan's sales in the US by 2017. If Ghosn also means to double market share, that would give Nissan about a 15 percent chunk of American car sales within three years, compared with its 7.7 percent share and sales of 1.1 million units last year, up in volume by 5 percent over the previous year.

With the European market difficult for its sibling Renault brand and other national arenas, including China, proving somewhat iffier, Ghosn has focused on his disappointment with Nissan's recent sales performance in the US and has vowed to correct it. Much of the problem stemmed from difficult and late launches of the redesigned bread-and-butter sedan, the Nissan Altima, and other new models last year.Continue reading...

Nissan's Facebook page says it all: "Doing things right is hard work." And Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault-Nissan, is encouraging his executives to roll up their sleeves and keep working on ambitious market-share targets that he still maintains for Nissan's growth in America.

He has held out Nissan's US market share goal at 10 percent, while its current share is just shy of 8 percent. For the year to date through October, Nissan sales were ahead of year-earlier levels by more than 10 percent, including about a 20-percent boost for the Infiniti luxury brand — despite effects of Hurricane Sandy that disrupted Nissan's crucial northeastern-U.S. market, and despite the strong comebacks of arch-rivals Toyota and Honda.

Ghosn, of course, is setting the bar higher. "We are still not at our potential," Ghosn told Automotive News. "We can be at a much higher operational performance level. We're driving to that. When we approach [the necessary levels] we can [attain] 10 percent market share."Continue reading...

How low can you go? If you're Carlos Ghosn, you want to build a car cheap enough that Nissan finally can compete in the very lowest-priced segment of auto sales throughout the developing world. So as promised earlier this year, Nissan — up 30 percent on Interbrand's just-released 2012 Best Global Brands report — is moving forward with a plan to delve into the ultra-low-cost car market by offering a model for about $3,000 to $5,000.

And the Nissan-Renault alliance has promised to do so through a revival of the Datsun brand. Nissan plans to offer six Datsun vehicles, beginning in 2014, at a price range lower than all but a handful of smaller car makers in China and India, Ghosn told the Wall Street Journal. A $3,000 Datsun would be about one-third of the price of the currently least expensive Nissan, the $8,000 Tsuru compact.

By not doing so previously, the CEO of Nissan and Renault said that the company has left itself out of about 40 percent of the potential market in countries including India, Indonesia and Russia. "We just see an opportunity," Ghosn explained earlier this year. "Today, in all the markets we are present, there is a level of price below which we cannot compete, we have no offering. The risk is to do nothing."Continue reading...

The Paris Auto Show is beginning to look less like an internationalized extravaganza of automotive glitz, glamor and haute sheet metal than a European summit meeting convened to solve some geopolitical crisis.

Brands still showed off all of their new and proposed hardware to automotive journalists this week. But as the show opens to the French public, there's a lot more attention being paid to the auto-industry CEOs — as they huddle to confront European-market sales that have fallen to a 17-year low — than to any particular concept car or new production model.

As the press preview week wound down, in fact, all eyes were on Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne after they emerged from an early-morning meeting today — what had been openly billed as a showdown between the two industry titans over differences on whether European automakers should respond collectively or only individually to industry overcapacity.Continue reading...

Carlos Ghosn, Renault Group's Chairman and CEO, has presented His Holiness Benedict XVI (better known as "the Pope") with the keys of a 100% electric vehicle "based on the Kangoo Maxi Z.E. and a second electric vehicle for use by the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City for the Pope's security." A reminder to the Pontiff, whose digital corps at the Vatican just launched an Android app for Vatican Radio: don't tweet and drive.

Toyota tops Interbrand's 2012 Best Global Green Brands report.

News Corp. considers splitting company in two, spinning off publishing assets, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft acquires Yammer for $1.2 billion to take on Oracle and Salesforce with new cloud-based services.

Nissan rises on fast recovery from disasters and plans $1B China auto plant as CEO Ghosn remains Japan's highest paid exec and automaker turns to Facebook to launch five new models.

Facebook names first woman to board — COO Sheryl Sandberg — and pulls so-called stalker app while creating uproar by changing all users' email addresses to facebook.com.

Google I/O news on Wednesday expected to reveal Google and Sony taking on cable and satellite operators with voice-controlled YouTube TV box, as Google prepares to battle Apple with discount tablet.Continue reading...

AOL sells patents to Microsoft.

AT&T spends big to support launch of Numia smartphone by Nokia as it staves off a walkout by its workers.

Augusta National leaves unsettled the question of membership of IBM CEO Virginia Rometty; Bubba Watson wins its Masters tournament in dramatic fashion.

Avon names new CEO from Johnson & Johnson.

CDC says anti-smoking ads prompt lots more "quit attempts."

Cotton launches new look.

Google plots web-domain buying spree.

Great Wolf Resorts sees sweetened offer to buy company.

Kia keeps brand humming in non-launch year. Continue reading...

Pepsi returns to musical roots in spots for tonight's debut of The X Factor on Fox, while the UK version of the show copes with criticism over treatment of contestant. Meanwhile, analysts say that PepsiCo shareholders could reap big gains if the company executes a strategic split-up.

SABMiller gets Foster's to accede to a deal.

Burger King's post-King advertising clicks with consumers.

AOL needs Patch to turn a profit.

Apple schedules Oct. 4th press conference, presumably for iPhone 5 reveal.

CBS scores huge ratings for first episode of Two and a Half Men with Ashton Kutcher, including setting a Canadian TV record.

Chipotle sees strong growth potential from ShopHouse Asian eateries.

Chrysler seeks to keep lid on UAW pay through 2019.Continue reading...