quits – All about car

Hiroto Saikawa has resigned as CEO of Nissan with immediate effect after admitting being improperly overpaid. Saikawa had recently indicated he would quit after admitting being overpaid, and his departure was agreed at a board meeting in Japan today. Current COO Yasuhiro Yamauchi will take over as acting CEO, with the company aiming to appoint a new CEO by the end of October. The departure of Saikawa is another blow to Nissan following the revelations of financial misconduct that led to the departure and arrest of former chief Carlos Ghosn and director Greg Kelly. Whereas Ghosn had pushed to fully merge the three companies involved in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Saikawa has been pushing for Nissan to retain full independence. The misconduct came to light in a report from the troubled firm’s audit committee following an internal investigation into misconduct by Ghosn and Kelly. The report, produced by Nissan and an external law firm, listed several specific instances of financial misconduct. While it hasn’t been published in full, Nissan has released an overview of its key points. These include the fact that Saikawa had been overpaid as part of a bonus payment scheme – a charge that he recently admitted. The report says that, in 2013, Saikawa made a request to Kelly to find a way to increase his pay. While Kelly didn’t meet that request, he subsequently recalculated the compensation due from Saikawa’s share appreciation rights and falsified documents to give the appearance that those rights had been exercised a week after the actual date. The report also found that two former Nissan directors and four former or current executives benefitted from share overpayments due to improper handling by Kelly. However, the report suggests that only Ghosn and Kelly will be charged with misconduct, because the others were unaware of the methods employed by Kelly. The overview of the report also includes several examples of how overpayments to Ghosn were concealed and lists several examples of his personal use of company assets. These included $27 million (£21.7m) assigned to Nissan subsidiary Zi-A Capital being spent on properties for Ghosn’s personal use in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro, more than $750,000 (£604,000) being paid to Ghosn’s sister for a fictitious consulating contract and more than $2m (£1.6m) being paid to two universities in Ghosn’s home country of Lebanon with “no legitimate business
Origin: Nissan chief Hiroto Saikawa quits following pay revelations

The Smart brand is being powered down in Canada and the United States. Mercedes-Benz Canada has confirmed that sales of the tiny car, which is currently sold only as a battery-powered electric vehicle, will end at the end of the 2019 model year. In a statement, the company cited “a number of factors, including a declining microcar market in the U.S. and Canada, combined with high homologation costs for a low-volume model.” Mercedes-Benz will continue its electric strategy with new EQ models, which will initially arrive in Canada with the new EQC in 2020. Smart initially launched in 1998 as a joint venture of Daimler-Benz and watch company Swatch – resulting in a tiny city car with replaceable coloured plastic body panels that could be switched out to change the car’s appearance, like a Swatch. The cars used a three-cylinder, 800-cc diesel engine, rated at just 40 horsepower, when they arrived in Canada in 2004. They didn’t arrive in the United States until 2008, when the powertrain switched to a three-cylinder gasoline engine. They were initially imported by United Auto Group, owned by Roger Penske, who transferred the distribution rights back to Mercedes-Benz in 2011. The car’s best sales years were shortly after its Canadian introduction, and declined after that. An electric EQ version was added for 2014, and for 2018, the Smart lineup of coupe and cabriolet dropped its gasoline engine and went strictly electric. Range was approximately 130 kilometres on a charge, which also limited its appeal when other electrics were offering much longer driving distances. Only 368 Smarts were sold in Canada in 2017, and that dropped to just 345 in 2018. The little car should carry on in other markets, though. Daimler recently announced a joint venture with Zhejiang Geely to build the electric Smart in China, with sales beginning in 2022. In both Canada and the U.S., Mercedes-Benz will continue to provide service and replacement parts for gasoline and electric versions through authorized
Origin: Smart calls it quits in Canada and the U.S.