Nissan's Ghosn: "Time Not Right" for American Partner

DETROIT, Nov 16, 2006; Jui Chakravorty writing for Reuters reported that Renault SA-Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on Thursday he is open to adding a U.S. automaker to the alliance, but will wait for the timing to be right for Nissan.

"We still think it's a good idea," Ghosn said after a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, referring to a partnership with an American automaker. "But we are not talking to anybody right now. We are not searching for opportunities because we don't think the timing is right for us."

Game Console Wars The video game industry's own clash of the titans reboots this week with the midnight launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Sunday's debut of Nintendo's Wii.

Full coverage After nearly three months of talks, General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Nissan and Renault announced in October that they would end their discussions on a possible partnership. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said the automaker would benefit from the proposed alliance far less than Nissan and Renault.

GM wanted to be compensated for the perceived imbalance, but Renault-Nissan said that demand contradicted the spirit of an alliance.

On Thursday, Ghosn said he only considered the proposal in response to an initiative taken by Kirk Kerkorian, GM's largest individual shareholder. "We were responding to an initiative, not taking an initiative," he said.

Ghosn said he wants to grow revenue and income at Nissan by focusing on products before he seeks another alliance.

"The next time, we will not respond until we think the time is right for us," Ghosn said. "And I don't see that happening in the near future."

Ghosn said he is considering adding production capacity in North America, for which he may look at GM and Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plants slated to close as the two automakers cut jobs.

GM and Ford are planning to close about 28 plants in North America as they try to align capacity with demand.

"We are constantly in a situation where our forecast of sales is higher than our capacity in the U.S. market," Ghosn said.