Carlos Ghosn, Clean Cars and California

Video posted courtesy of The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

STANFORD, Calif. - Why did the Renault-Nissan Alliance invest more than $5 billion to create the first affordable and mass-produced zero-emission vehicles on the planet? What does it take to transform one the world’s largest car companies into a model of sustainability and innovation? How do you get breakthrough technology from a company known for "incremental improvements"?

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, talked to students about the Nissan LEAF and additional "clean cars" coming soon from the Renault-Nissan Alliance. His lecture at Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) came the same day the Alliance announced the opening of its Silicon Valley office. While in California, Ghosn tested the Google "driverless car" and sat down with the automotive correspondent for technology site Wired.com.

Ghosn said technology-savvy "early adopters" in places like California and Japan buy the Nissan LEAF chiefly for its environmental benefits. But emerging markets may have an even greater interest in promoting zero-emission transportation, he said.

The United States has approximately 800 cars per 1,000 people. In Europe, it’s about 600 cars per 1,000 people. Russia has 300. Brazil has 200. China has 50. India has 15.

Millions of people entering the middle class want to buy cars - yet the planet cannot continue indefinitely to increase the number of conventionally powered automobiles, Ghosn said. This is just one reason that zero-emission cars will make up about 10 percent of the world’s total vehicle sales by 2020, he predicted. That’s a sharp increase given that last year only 20,000 EVs were delivered out of a global total of at least 73 million vehicles.