Nissan-Renault boss Carlos Ghosn forecas that the European car sector would undergo further consolidation, as the industry moved to cut costs amid a debt crisis that has hurt demand.
An alliance between PSA Peugeot Citroen and General Motors announced last week was therefore "absolutely not a surprise," Ghosn said.
The need to share development costs remained a pertinent issue for all car makers, and in Eastern Europe all carmakers are facing surplus capacity problems in their factories, he noted.
Ghosn warned that the moment one company began to restructure, the rest would follow. "If somebody restructures, it will force everybody to follow," he said.
Ghosn added that Renault was pursuing negotiations on increasing its holding in the Russian carmaker Avtovaz, which makes Lada. "We are going to increase the (number of) shares, we are still in negotiations," he said.
"Now the election is behind us ... obviously it will clear a lot of questions very fast," the Nissan-Renault chief executive added in reference to Russia's presidential elections.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
